izK  IGtbris 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  hook 

Because  it  has  heen  said 
"Sver'thing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  hook." 


,0'  . 


^4  I3 yiAy^^'-"^. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


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CHRONICLES  or 
TARRYTOWN  AND 
SLEEPY  HOLLOW 

By  EDGAR  HAYHCW  BACON 
ILLUSTR7\TED 


THIRD  IMPRESSION 


0.  p.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  mo  LONDON 
THE  KNICKERBOCKER  PRESS 
1900 


F 


Copyright,  1897 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Ube  'Stnicfterbocficr  press,  t\c\9  l^orl? 


• 


ERRATA. 


Page  2)^— for  Cornelius  read  Jacobus. 

Pp.  43  and  48— /br  Ritzenier  read  Ritzeina. 

P.  /^j—for  Bartholf  read  Bertholf. 

P.  53,  beginning  with  yth  line  to  end  of  paragraph, 

account  misplaced ;  refers  to  Rev.  Thos  G.  Smith, 

who  follows. 
P.  ']?>—for  Robert  read  Peter. 
Pp.  84  and  S$—for  24tb  read  23d. 
P.  d>s—for  east  side  7'ead  east  side  of  present  road. 
P.  %\—for  1778  read  1780, 
P.  \yd—for  William  read  Edward. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


MOST  books  of  places  are  prefaced  with 
the  statement  of  a  hope  that  they 
may  ' '  foster  local  pride. ' '  This  little  work 
is  not  offered  with  any  such  futile  anticipa- 
tion. The  slow  ox,  Time,  that  Sydney  lyanier 
pictures  as  browsing  through  his  clover-field 
of  poets  and  great  men  and  names  the 
' '  course-o' -things,  "sweeps  away  old  landmarks 
like  worthless  rubbish.  It  is  no  less  destruc- 
tive in  '97  than  it  was  in  '37  or  at  any  other 
date,  though  not  a  few  have  been  the  heroic 
efforts  to  check  its  progress.  Houses  wherein 
generations  have  lived  and  died,  haunted  with 
memories,  disappear  each  year  to  make  place 
for  bright  new  bricks  and  mortar — that  is  to 
say,  for  the  planting  of  the  seeds  which,  in 
time,  will  yield  a  crop  of  new  chronicles. 

But  the  policy  of  destro3ang  old  sites  may 
be  justly  questioned  either  from  an  aesthetic  or 
iii 


iv 


preface 


from  a  business  standpoint  ;  from  the  first,  be- 
cause the  sentiment  which  grows  upon  the  con- 
templation of  that  which  is  venerable  and 
suggestive  to  the  imagination  is  a  pure  and 
worthy  one,  and  from  the  second  because  it 
often  happens  that  the  chief  attraction  to 
strangers  (who  from  visitors  not  infrequently 
become  residents),  lies  not  in  the  new  brick 
and  mortar,  but  in  the  old  shingle  sides  and 
gambrel  roofs  of  colonial  houses. 

It  is  certain  that  the  genius  of  Washington 
Irving  has  done  a  great  deal  to  attract  people 
to  Tarrytown.  It  seems  safe  to  say  that  all 
other  agencies  together  have  not  brought  as 
many  people  into  this  region  as  the  Legend  of 
Sleepy  Hollow  has.  Yet  only  last  year  the  old 
house  which  was,  according  to  Mr.  Irving,  the 
scene  of  the  courtship,  the  home  of  Katrina 
van  Tassel,  w^as  torn  down  to  make  way  for  a 
new  vSchoolhouse.  In  1866  Mr.  James  Miller 
wrote  the  following  :  It  is  folly  to  quarrel 
with  these  changes.  Cut  down  the  trees  that 
shade  your  loveliest  brook,  if  you  will  ;  let  an 
adventurer  dam  it  with  his  pin  factory  ;  let 
your  old  Dutch  church  go  to  ruin;  let  boys 


preface 


V 


iiack  the  woodwork  and  break  the  window- 
glass  ;  show  your  fine  taste  by  sticking  your 
smart  modern  cemetery,  with  its  spic-span 
tombstones  on  the  hill-top  to  overcrow  the 
simple  relics  of  the  venerable  dead  who  sleep 
in  the  old  graveyard  below — but  remember 
that  all  this  is  money  out  of  your  pockets. 
.  .  .  Strangers  will  come  to  see  these  places 
that  Irving  has  written  about  and  they  will 
not  find  them.  They  might  have  been  cared 
for  and  preserved,  and  they  would  have  paid 
the  interest  on  all  it  would  cost  to  keep  them 
from  destruction." 

That  was  a  good,  honest  plea,  and  as  useless 
as  it  was  earnest.  The  course-o' -things  " 
still  browses  in  our  historic  field,  and  is  no 
monster  after  all,  but  just  the  world's  ox, 
doing  the  world's  work.  He  has  been  always 
browsing,  and  the  clover  has  always  been 
springing  again  at  his  heels. 

This  book  is  a  basket  full  of  field  fare  that 
has  been  snatched  from  under  his  muzzle.  If 
you  do  not  want  it  he  will  come  to  it  presently, 
and  then,  after  deliberate  scrutiny,  the  basket 
and  its  contents  will  go  together. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Author's  Preface  v 

I. — Life  and  Customs  of  Eari,y  vSettt.ers  i 
II.— Vredryk  Fi^ypse— His  Castile    .      .  5 

III.  — The  Story  of  the  Oi,d  Dutch  Church  39 

IV.  — SUNNYSIDE  66 

V. — The  Neutrai,  Ground  .       .      .  .71 
VI.— Myths  and  Legends     ....  95 
-VII.— O1.D  Sites  and  Highways   .      .  .126 
VIII.— Tarrytown  in  War  Times  .      .  .144 
IX.— To-Day  149 


vii 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PACK 

Old  Manor  House ("  Flypse's  Castle")  and 

Mill,  Tarrytown      .      .      .  Frontispiece 


Drawn  by  the  Author. 

Old  Mill — Built  by  Vredryk  Flypse  .  .  8 
Old  Sleepy  Hollow  Mill  ....  20 
Old  Dutch  Church  in  Sleepy  Hollow  .      .  40 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  Ahrens. 

Interior  of  Old  Dutch  Church,  Sleepy 
Hollow,  Prior  to  its  Restoration  in 
1897  58 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  Ahrens. 

'  *  SuNNYSiDE. ' '  Home  of  Washington  Irving  66 
Monument  to  the  Captors  of  Andr]^  .      .  84 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  Ahrens. 

The  Jacob  Mott  House.  Home  of  Katrina 
Van  Tassel  88 

Drawn  by  the  Author. 

The  Capture  of  Andr^  94 

From  a  print  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Coutant, 

The  Pocantico  River  102 

Old  Church  Graveyard  112 

"  Hulda's  grave  is  close  by  the  north  wall." 

ix 


X 


llluatrations. 


PAGE 

"He  Beheld  Something  Huge,  Misshapen, 

Black,  AND  Towering  "    .      .      .  .114 

From  Irving's  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow 

"Just  then  he  Heard  the  Black  Steed 


Panting  and  Blowing  Close  behind 
HIM "  118 

From  Irving's  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow. 

Bird's-eye  View  of  Tarrytown      .      .  .126 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  Ahrens. 

"Lyndhurst."      Home    of    Miss  Helen 
Gould  130 

Old  Lane  140 

The  Castle  144 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  Ahrens. 

Home  of  William  Rockefeller    .      .  .150 

From  a  photograph  by  F.  Ahrens. 

Map  OF  Tarrytown  152 


CHRONICLES  Or  TARPYTOWN 
AND  SLEEPY  HOLLOW 


I 


CHRONICLES  OF  TARRYTOWN 
AND  SLEEPY  HOLLOW 


I 


I.IFK  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  EARLY  SETTLERS 
P^HE  houses  of  the  early  settlers  were 


I  not  homes  of  luxury  by  any  means,  and 
the  thrifty  pioneer  did  not  know  the  taste  of 
the  bread  of  idleness.  From  the  first  his 
toil  included  the  manufacture  of  many  of 
the  implements  of  labor,  and  what  he  or  his 
women-folk  could  not  produce  they  went 
without.  For  many  years  not  a  shop  or 
store  offered  an  alternative  to  home-spun  and 
home-made  goods. 

The  peddler,  going  his  familiar  round 
through  the  wilderness,  with  a  pack  that 


2 


Cbronicles  ot  (Tarrgtovvn 


rivalled  the  bazaars  of  Constantinople  to  the 
eyes  of  unsophisticated  Annetjes  and  Gret- 
chens,  was  a  merchant  of  consequence ;  a  guest 
to  whom  more  than  ordinar}^  consideration  was 
to  be  shown.  The  lace  that  trimmed  a  holiday 
stomacher,  or  the  pinchbeck  that  adorned  a 
plump  hand  or  dangled  against  ruddy  cheeks; 
the  buttons  that  glittered  on  the  Goedman's 
waistcoat,  or  the  buckles  that  graced  the  dance 
in  the  manor-house  kitchen,  came  from  his 
mysterious  treasure-box. 

Once  in  a  while  a  trading-boat  put  into  the 
bay  and  tied  up  to  a  tree  on  the  shore,  while 
the  word  of  its  arrival,  passing  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  brought  the  entire  population  flocking 
around  it. 

The  people  raised  their  own  stock,  their  own 
cabbages  and  corn  ;  the  wives  spun  and  wove, 
brewed  and  baked,  and  the  most  celebrated 
were  those  who  made  the  best  sausages,  or  the 
most  toothsome  olykoeks. 

If  you  could  have  gone  into  one  of  the  little 
houses  that  were  scattered  here  and  there 
through  the  woods,  you  would  have  found 
meagre,  rude  furniture  set  upon  sanded  floors, 


aiiD  SleepB  Ibollow 


3 


on  which  a  pattern  had  been  marked  with  a 
broom.  A  shelf  of  pewter  and  delft  ware  was 
the  only  adornment  of  the  pictureless  walls, 
and  the  only  object  of  grace  or  beauty  in  the 
room  was  apt  to  be  the  spinning-wheel,  or  the 
girl  who  ran  it. 

We  must  picture  houses  almost  bare  of  what 
we  would  consider  indispensable  to  life  ;  cabins 
as  rude  as  any  camp  in  the  woods,  devoid  of 
books,  barren  as  the  hut  of  a  savage.  Within 
these  dwellings  a  sturdy  hard-working  race 
grew  up  to  look  upon  the  Lord  of  the  Manor 
as  little  less  than  sovereign  in  his  power  and 
wisdom.  The  lore  that  their  fathers  and 
mothers  brought  from  the  old  countr}^  must 
have  seemed  to  them  almost  like  fables  ;  the 
Master,  who  divided  his  time  between  New 
York  and  his  manor,  took  the  proportions  of 
a  mysterious  prince,  while  the  dominie,  who 
made  long  journeys  to  them  from  Hackensack 
three  or  four  times  a  3^ear,  was  armed  with  the 
authority  of  one  who  lived  in  another  and 
larger  world. 

There  is  no  local  record  preserved  of  games 
or  amusements,  but  being  Hollanders,  and 


4  Cbroniclce  of  ^Tarr^town 


therefore  tenacious  of  old  customs,  it  is  safe 
to  suppose  that  the  tenants  of  Lord  Flj^pse 
did  not  forget  in  their  cabins  the  customs  of 
the  Fatherland.  St.  Nicholas,  goed  heilig 
maan,  no  doubt  had  come  over  with  their  other 
household  gods,  and  if  there  was  any  secret 
charm  that  Annetje  or  Gretchen  did  not  know, 
it  was  because  their  mothers  were  ignorant 
of  it. 

v--  Of  course,  it  must  be  understood  that  there 
were  some  among  the  tenants  who  were  better 
educated  than  the  rest,  as,  for  instance,  Abra- 
ham de  Revere,  who  wrote  the  first  minutes  in 
the  old  record-book  of  the  church  in  1 7 1 5 ;  and 
we  know  that  some  soon  exchanged  their  cabins 
for  more  comfortable  houses,  for  a  very  few  of 
those  houses  have  stood  until  quite  recently. 
But  for  the  most  part  the  tenantry  of  the  estate 
were  not  enlightened,  and  their  lives  were  very 
meagre. 


II 


VRKDRYK  — HIS  CASTI^K 

BOUT  the  year  1680,  a  royal  grant  gave 


to  Frederick  Philips,  or  Vredryk 
Flypse,  the  right  to  purchase  and  rule  a  large 
tract  of  land,  of  which  the  Indian  village 
of  Alipconc  was  almost  the  centre.  There 
are  several  accounts  of  the  origin  of  Flypse. 
According  to  John  Ja}^  the  elder,  he  was  oi 
Bohemian  birth,  though  his  childhood  was 
passed  in  Holland,  to  which  country  his 
mother  had  fled  to  escape  religious  persecu- 
tion, she  being  a  Protestant.  Very  little  was 
saved  in  that  pitiful  exodus,  and  the  young 
Flypse  learned  his  trade  at  the  carpenter's 
bench  like  any  plebeian  little  Hollandish  lad. 
A  second  migration,  when  he  was  still  a  youth, 
landed  him  upon  the  wharf  at  New  Amster- 
dam, with  no  capital  but  his  handicraft  and 


5 


6 


Cbroniclce  of  ^Tarretown 


his  brains.  Another  account  makes  him  a 
native  of  Friesland,  born  in  1626,  son  of  Fred- 
eric FeHpse.  It  agrees  with  the  fonner  as  to 
immigration  and  the  carpenter's  bench. 

After  a  few  years  he  abandoned  carpentering 
and  engaged  in  the  fur  trade,  showing  both 
shrewdness  and  capacity  for  business,  in  proof 
of  which  his  marriage  may  be  considered.  A 
rival  fur-trader,  named  de  Vries,  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  die  and  leave  a  young  widow  whose 
attractions  were  no  doubt  enhanced  by  her 
wealth.  The  picture  that  Vredrj'k  wanted 
was  set  in  a  golden  frame. 

Margareta  Van  Hardenbroek  de  Vries  has 
been  greatlj^  praised  for  the  wifely  quaUties 
she  evinced.  She,  having  a  daughter  by  her 
first  husband,  became  the  mother  of  Flypse's 
three  children,  and  his  helpmate  till  he  became 
firmly  established  as  a  man  of  influence  in  the 
colony.  We  infer,  from  such  meagre  data  as 
can  be  obtained,  that  the  wedding  took  place 
about  1660,  and  Margareta' s  death  more  than 
twenty  years  later,  for  her  eldest  children  were 
nearly  grown  when  her  husband  moved  to  his 
estate  of  Phihpsburg,  and  a  resolution  of 


anO  Sleeps  1)ollow 


7 


thanks  offered  to  her  by  the  tenantry  of  the 
manor  proved  her  to  have  been  living  at  that 
time. 

A  narrator  of  the  year  17 15  (Abraham  de 
Revere,  in  his  preface  to  the  old  church 
records)  states  that  it  had  ' '  Pleased  his  Royal 
Majesty  of  England,  Scotland,  France,  and 
Ireland,  defender  of  the  faith,  etc.,  about  the 
year  of  our  I^ord  1680,  to  grant  by  prerogative, 
consent,  and  license,  to  the  Honorable  Fred- 
ryk  Flypse,  to  freely  buy  in  a  certain  sale  of 
estate,  a  certain  tract  of  land  and  valley  situ- 
ated in  the  county  of  Westchester,  in  America, 
beginning  at  the  place  of  Spuyten  Duyvel's 
kill  and  running  north  along  the  river  to  and 
on  the  kill  of  Kitch  Awong  (Croton),  etc.,  as 
in  the  license  and  patent  contained,"  and  that 

Lord  Flypse  had  contracted  with  [record 

torn]  ' '  to  let  any  one  settle  on  said  land  free, 
for  certain  stipulated  years  in  order  that  it 
should  as  soon  as  possible  be  cultivated  and 
settled." 

The  manor  of  Philipsburg  came  into  Sir 
Vredryk's  hands  by  several  conveyances. 
Some  of  it  was  granted  by  the  Crown,  and  a 


8 


(IbronicIc0  ot  ^Tarrgtovon 


portion  purchased  ;  nor  were  all  of  his  posses- 
sions acquired  at  the  same  time.  Abraham  de 
Revere  was  only  partly  right  when  he  wrote 
his  preface  to  the  records  of  the  old  church. 
The  site  of  Tarry  town  cost  only  a  few  pounds 
of  tobacco,  hardware,  and  cloth,  and  a  little 
rum.  The  entire  catalogue  of  titles  and 
grants,  some  confirmatory  of  others,  extended 
from  1672  to  1693,  when  the  signatures  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  completed  the  series.  The 
grant  given  by  Governor  Andros,  confirming 
the  Tarrytown  or  Pocantico  purchase,  is  dated 
1680. 

No  very  positive  statement  can  be  made  re- 
garding the  exact  date  of  Flypse's  settlement 
upon  the  manor.  He  built  a  manor-house, 
mill,  and  church  on  the  Pocantico.  1683-84 
and  '85  are  variously  given  as  the  years  in 
which  the  two  former  buildings  were  finished  ; 
but  the  same  tradition  which  informs  us  that 
the  house  was  completed  in  1683  or  1684,  pre- 
sents to  us  a  puzzle  in  the  avowal  that  the  bell 
and  furniture  for  the  church  came  over  in  the 
same  vessel  which  brought  the  brick  used  in 
the  chimney  and  other  parts  of  the  dwelling. 


■» 


ft 


ant)  SleepB  "Ibollow 


9 


What  makes  this  singular  is  the  fact  that  the 
date  cast  in  the  metal  of  the  bell  is  1685.  So 
that  it  appears  that  a  bell  was  cast  in  Holland 
in  1685,  and  brought  to  this  country  two  or 
three  years  earlier  along  with  some  brick  that 
was  used  in  a  building,  or  buildings,  erected  in 
1683.  As  will  be  readily  seen,  the  solution  to 
the  difficulty  will  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
transport  made  several  V03^ages.  Vredryk 
Flypse  was  a  large  ship  owner  for  that  day, 
and  his  vessels  did  a  considerable  carrying 
trade  between  Holland,  England,  and  the 
colonies. 

One  matter  which  the  wiseacres  have  settled 
in  a  very  off-hand  way  is  that  of  the  seniority 
of  the  Yonkers'  manor-house  over  that  of 
Tarry  town.  I  believe  this  to  be  an  error.  All 
the  evidence  seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that  the 
Tarrytown  mansion  was  erected  too  soon  after 
the  property  was  acquired  to  admit  of  another 
having  been  built  on  any  part  of  the  domain  in 
the  meantime;  and  there  is  not  a  shadow  of 
trustworthy  evidence  that  the  house  of  Yon- 
kers can  lay  claim  to  a  date  prior  to  the  mar- 
riage of  Eva  Philips  with  Van  Cortlandt,  at 


lo  Cbroniclee  of  tTarrgtovvn 


which  time  her  father  bestowed  with  her  hand 
that  part  of  the  estate  in  dowry.  It  is  not 
probable  that  Flypse  lived  at  Yonkers,  though 
there  were  undoubtedly  shanties  and  a  mill 
there  at  a  very  early  time.  The  proprietor's 
journeys  to  Tarry  town  were  made  from  New 
York  on  horseback  or  by  yacht. 

Flypse  was  fortunately  a  man  of  taste  as 
w^ell  as  of  business  capacity.  He  chose  for  the 
site  of  his  ' '  Castle  ' '  the  sloping  bank  at  the 
head  of  the  bay  we  have  already  referred  to. 
It  was  a  sunny  spot,  reclaimed  by  the  wood- 
man's axe  from  the  forest.  We  can  picture 
the  new  cornfields,  backing  against  the  sterile 
line  of  pine  shadow  and  guarded  by  grotesque 
scarecrows  that  bravely  flaunted  cast-off  great 
coats  of  linsey-woolsey  and  three-cornered 
beavers,  worn  with  a  rakish  slant. 

By  the  water's  edge  a  new  wharf  of  huge 
green  logs  confined  the  channel  of  the  stream. 
Here  was  moored  a  curious  vessel,  with  broad 
bows  and  stern  set  high  in  air,  her  bulwarks 
generously  carven,  and  her  cordage  in  what 
would  seem,  to  the  modern  mariner,  to  be  inex- 
tricable confusion.  Groups  of  sturdy  workmen, 


anD  Sleepy  IboUow 


II 


unloading  the  yacht  of  her  brick,  hardware,  or 
other  cargo  ;  Dutch  carpenters,  plying  the  saw 
and  broad-axe  as  they  fitted  the  huge  timbers 
for  the  new  building  ;  a  gang  of  negroes  making 
the  place  ring  with  their  laughter  and  songs  as 
they  carried  burdens  to  and  fro — all  these  might 
be  seen  busily  engaged  in  rearing  the  manor- 
house.  Back  and  forth  among  them,  direct- 
ing, encouraging,  reproving,  always  alert, 
went  the  master.  A  man  to  be  feared  was 
Flypse.  His  erect  figure  and  keen  face  marked 
a  leader.  In  the  affairs  of  the  State,  the  count- 
ing-room, or  the  plantation  it  required  a  bold 
will  to  oppose  him. 

As  the  building  progressed,  the  lady  of  the 
manor,  perhaps,  visited  the  place  which  was  to 
be  her  home  for  a  short  time  and  where  her 
children's  young  stepmother  was  afterwards  to 
eclipse  her  so  utterly  that  the  country-side 
should  forget  that  she  had  ever  lived.  No 
doubt  the  four  bright  children  explored,  as 
children  of  this  later  day  do,  the  wonders  of 
the  witching  stream  that  swirled  and  rushed 
over  sunken  bowlder  and  fallen  tree-trunk  to 
the  place  where  their  much  respected  father 


12  Cbronicle5  of  Carrgtown 


was  superintending  the  building  of  the  dam. 
There  the  future  grave  chief-justices  caught 
trout,  and  the  embryo  great  dames,  their  sweet 
sisters,  were  mightily  terrified  at  the  distant 
sight  of  a  chance  bear. 

At  last  the  house  was  finished.  It  was 
solidly  built  of  stone.  Its  walls  were — and  are 
still — of  unusual  thickness,  and  such  care  has 
been  taken  lately  to  cover  them  over,  that  time 
and  the  weather  can  find  no  point  of  attack. 
The  roof  was  built,  after  the  fashion  of  those 
daj^s,  with  a  double  slant,  and  in  its  hewn 
timbers  is  a  prophecy  of  strength  for  years 
to  come. 

In  the  southwest  walls  of  the  cellar  two  port 
holes  or  embrasures  were  cut,  from  w^hich  pro- 
truded the  muzzles  of  small  howitzers  ;  they 
regulated  trade  as  well  as  war.  The  old  doors 
at  front  and  rear  of  the  hall  were  divided  into 
upper  and  lower  halves,  and  secured  by  heavy 
transverse  bars  of  iron-bound  oak,  while  the 
inner  doors  connecting  the  rooms  show  in  their 
peculiar  joiner  work  the  hand  of  the  Holland- 
ish  carpenter  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

A  squarely  built,  honest,  and  substantial 


13 


house  was  this,  where  tenants  could  flock  for 
protection,  and  an  army  of  savages  be  safely 
defied — as  long  as  provisions  held  out.  That 
there  was  very  little  danger  of  a  scarcity  in  the 
larder  we  may  judge  from  the  generous  pan- 
tries and  cellars  that  fill  their  proportion  of  the 
old  house.  A  tradition  tells  how  Flypse,  being 
annoyed  by  the  thieving  propensities  of  his 
slaves  and  some  domesticated  Indians,  built  a 
smoke-house,  or  room,  in  the  ample  chimney, 
and  kept  in  his  own  pocket  the  key  of  a  store- 
room large  enough  to  victual  a  garrison. 

From  the  rear  end  of  the  wide  hall,  which  at 
present  occupies  the  centre  of  the  mansion,  runs 
a  flight  of  stairs  winding  by  three  easy  stages 
to  the  floor  above.  South  of  the  upper  landing 
is  a  succession  of  chambers  opening  into  one 
another,  all  of  considerable  size,  and  the  inner 
one,  where  probably  stood  the  martial  four- 
poster,  as  big  as  a  hospital  ward. 

Flypse-his- Castle  was  a  very  large  affair  in 
its  day.  Its  proprietor  was  one  who  had  the 
reputation  of  being  the  best  housed  man  in  the 
colony.  So  strong  had  this  impression  become 
that,  in  1689,  a  popular  demand  was  made  that 


14  Cbroniclee  of  a:arigto\vn 

the  public  money  of  New  York  (amounting 
to  ;^773.  I2S.)  be  removed  from  the  fort  to 
Flypse's  house. 

History  and  tradition  do  not  seem  fully  to 
agree  concerning  the  manner  of  man  that 
Flypse  was.  The  traditionary^  Philips  was  a 
rather  holy  man,  whose  pride  was  in  the 
church  he  built,  w^hose  tastes  were  rural,  who 
was  a  pleasant,  patriarchal  old  fossil,  and  to 
whom  the  winds  of  existence  were  somewhat 
miraculously  tempered — but  history  makes  no 
mention  of  his  having  even  been  a  member  of 
the  church  he  built  (at  a  day  when  church- 
membership  meant  little)  ;  documents  and 
deeds  show  him  to  have  been  not  only  a  suc- 
cessful merchant  but  a  keen  and  powerful 
politician,  who  headed  with  Bayard  and  Van 
Cortlandt  the  patrician  party  in  the  colony. 
Before  him  and  his  immediate  associates  the 
strong  lycislerian  faction  gave  way  ultimately, 
and  by  their  appointed  judges  Leisler  was  con- 
demned to  death.  So  far  from  being  noted  for 
his  peaceable  adherence  to  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church,  he  was  at  one  time  hotly  charged  with 
being  a  Papist. 


mt>  Sleeps  iboUow 


15 


There  is  something  pathetic  in  this  attempt 
of  tradition  to  make  a  pleasant  milk-and-water 
esquire  out  of  the  strong,  resolute,  hard-headed 
Bohemian  carpenter  boy,  who  fought  his  w^ay 
with  hard  knocks  from  the  obscurity  of  noth- 
ingdom  to  power  as  a  patrician  leader.  He 
must  have  had,  in  common  with  many  another 
self-made  man,  a  large  talent  for  forgetting  ; 
but,  though  he  had  lived  among  the  people,  he 
was  not  one  of  them  in  the  sense  of  having 
learned  their  shibboleths.  He  worked  always 
to  compel  fate  to  yield  him  a  compensation  for 
the  privations  of  his  3^outh. 

On  the  17th  of  October,  1683,  the  first  popu- 
lar assembly  held  in  the  colonies  convened  at 
New  York  and  framed  a  ' '  charter  of  liberties, ' ' 
wherein  it  was  ordained  that  "  every  free- 
holder and  free-man  might  vote  for  representa- 
tives without  restraint."  In  this  charter,  as 
ratified,  we  find  Flypse's  name  first  upon  the 
list  of  Aldermen.  It  mattered  little  to  him 
through  what  channel  power  flowed  to  him  ; 
he  trusted  himself  to  hold  by  his  wisdom  and 
strength  that  which  he  gained  by  his  tact. 

He  bitterly  opposed  I^eisler,  the  popular 


i6  Cbronlcles  of  tTarr^town 


leader,  and  was  one  of  those  two  officers  who 
claimed  in  behalf  of  the  colony,  and  as  the 
representatives  of  the  government,  the  letters 
of  instruction  brought  over  by  Riggs  from 
England.  These  letters  were  addressed  to 
whoever  might  be  in  power.  In  a  paper  by 
Colonel  Bayard,  styled  a  "  Modest  and  impar- 
tial account  of  several  grievances  and  great  op- 
pressions, etc.,  etc,"  the  writer  makes  a  long 
showing  of  error  and  crime  on  the  part  of  Mr, 
Jacob  lycisler,  and  in  the  course  of  his  narrative 
refers  to  Mr.  Fred'k  Philips  and  Stephanus 
Van  Cortlandt  as  * '  Left  in  trust  by  the  Lieut. 
Gov.  for  the  keeping  of  the  peace  and  legally 
governing  their  majesties'  province,  which  they 
carefully  and  honestly  would  have  discharged 
the  trust  reposed  in  them  if  they  had  not  been 
prevented  by  this  violator  of  our  laws  and  lib- 
erties (Leisler),  and  that  with  more  renown  to 
their  majesties  as  well  as  to  the  satisfaction  of 
their  liege  people  inhabiting  the  domain,  etc., 
etc." 

An  account  of  the  transaction  of  which  Bay- 
ard especially  complained  has  been  preserv^ed 
in  the  more  legal  form  of  a  certificate  signed 


anD  SleepB  Ibollow 


17 


by  Flypse  and  Van  Cortlandt  later.  It  reads  : 
* '  Leisler  sent  over  one  of  his  pretended  Lieu- 
tenants and  two  Sergeants  for  said  Riggs  (the 
bearer  of  the  dispatches)  who  se?it  for  us  whose 
names  are  hereunto  subscribed."  They  then 
went  with  him  to  the  house  of  I^eisler  within 
the  fort,  where  the  latter  not  only  disputed 
with  them  the  possession  of  the  papers,  but,  to 
use  their  own  language,  ' '  The  said  lycisler  told 
the  said  Riggs  that  we  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  said  government.  That  we  were  Papists, 
and  the  packets  were  directed  to  and  belonged 
to  him,  and  thereupon  commanded  and  took 
the  said  packets  out  of  the  said  Riggs  his 
hands,  bidding  us  to  depart  the  said  fort  hav- 
ing nothing  to  do  therewith — and  used  many 
opprobrious  words  to  both  of  us. ' '  The  ' '  op- 
probrious words  "  were  what  rankled  the 
longest,  and  perhaps  had  their  share  in  tight- 
ening the  rope  around  the  neck  of  their  author. 

When  Sir  Henry  Sloughter  arrived  in  New 
York  with  gubernatorial  power,  Flypse  and  his 
colleague  stole  a  march  on  I^eisler,  and  while 
he  anxiously  awaited  the  new  comer  they 

boarded  his  vessel,  and  loading  him  with  com- 
2 


i8  Cbronicles  ot  (Tarri^town 


pliments  and  civility  brought  him  on  shore. 
To  cap  this  coup  d'etat^  their  foe,  grimly  en- 
sconced in  the  fort,  suspiciously  refused  admit- 
tance to  the  new  Governor.  If  the  carpenter 
was  skilful  in  driving  home  his  nail,  he  was  at 
least  fortunate  in  having  an  enemy  complacent 
enough  to  clinch  it  for  him  on  the  other  side. 
So  Sloughter  was  won;  but  so  the  two  con- 
spirators did  not  gain  the  seat  they  afterwards 
occupied  in  his  council,  for  in  the  instructions 
which  the  new  Governor  brought  over  with 
him,  the  names  of  both  appeared  with  all  the 
attesting  formulae  of  the  court  at  Whitehall. 
Under  the  great  seal  Frederick  Philips  was  first 
named  upon  the  list  of  councilmen  to  be  called. 

How  Flj'pse  found  time,  amid  all  the  duties 
and  troubles  of  his  political  career,  to  direct 
an  extensive  business  and  still  give  thought  to 
his  manor  at  Philipsburg,  it  is  hard  to  see. 
Attend  to  it  he  did,  however,  and  very 
thoroughly. 

A  few  years  after  the  grant  was  secured,  he 
had  not  only  finished  his  house  but  a  mill  as 
well,  where  his  tenants  came  to  have  their 
corn  ground,    and  where  the  Indians  and 


19 


Whites  used  to  carry  on  those  trading  opera- 
tions that  gave  the  aborigines  some  of  their 
first  impressions  of  Caucasian  superiority.  The 
old  mill  still  stands,  its  empty  granary  a  refuge 
for  bats  and  squirrels  and  other  untamed  folk  ; 
its  walls  creak  with  the  swaying  of  the  willows 
that  lean  against  it,  and  idl}^  dabble  their  finger- 
tips in  the  stream  ;  yet  the  ancient  structure 
wears  its  centuries  very  lightl3^  It  speaks  elo- 
quently for  the  methods  of  Flypse,  who  as  car- 
penter, trader,  or  legislator  has  left  no  record 
of  half-done  work.  Whether  he  undertook  to 
erect  a  mill  or  elevate  a  governor,  he  did  not 
fail  to  accomplish  thoroughly  what  he  took  in 
hand. 

The  mill  is  a  little  more  than  a  rod  south  of 
the  house.  Its  timbers  are  of  unusually  heavy 
hewn  oak,  and  its  roof  is  shaped  like  that  of 
the  house.  The  sides  are  shingled,  not  with 
such  puny  shingles  as  we  have  to-day,  but 
mighty  ones,  made  of  cedar  that  has  forgotten 
how  to  grow  since  then.  A  treasured  speci- 
men hangs  over  my  table ;  it  is  carven  with  rain 
and  warped  by  sun  and  wind,  while  the  years 
have  painted  it  to  a  gray  that  no  other  colorist 


20  Cbroniclc0  of  ^Tart^tovvn 


can  match.  Throughout  its  two  feet  of  length 
are  seams  and  fissures  and  cross  cuts  where  the 
elements  have  fairly  charred  it.  It  tapers  from 
a  thickness  of  half  an  inch,  at  what  was  once 
the  thin  end,  to  a  ragged  paper-edge  that  will 
vibrate  under  a  breath.  Until  ver}^  recently 
the  old  mill  was  covered  with  its  fellows,  all 
fastened  to  their  places  upon  the  oaken  back 
strips  by  two  and  a  half  inch  wrought  nails. 

At  rear  and  front  of  the  building  are  the  old- 
fashioned,  horizontall}^  divided,  Dutch  doors. 
These,  and  the  little  windows  with  which  both 
sides  of  the  buildings  are  lavishly  besprinkled, 
still  swing  upon  hinges  that  would  make  the 
heart  of  an  antiquary  leap  for  jo3^ 

In  its  day  the  old  mill  is  said  to  have  been  a 
port  of  entry,  and  the  vessels  whose  manifests 
were  inspected  there  belonged  for  the  most 
part  to  the  dignified  gentleman  who  sat  in  the 
seat  of  customs — at  least,  so  tradition  asserts. 
I  have  failed  to  find  record  of  an}^  other  port 
of  entry  situated  so  far  from  the  sea  as  this  one 
was. 

The  millpond  dam  was  a  picturesque  affair 
of  great  logs,  propped  by  a  small  forest  of 


an&  Sleepy  Ibollow 


21 


lesser  logs.  A  foot-bridge  and  hand-rail 
crossed  the  top.  The  height  of  the  structure 
was  probably  about  twenty  feet,  and  below  it 
was  a  deep  pool,  towards  the  lower  end  of 
which  a  wooden  wharf  received  the  cargoes  of 
the  vessels  that  entered  there.  These  craft, 
some  at  least,  proceeded  past  New  York  with- 
out dropping  anchor,  to  and  from  the  West 
Indies  and  even  from  Holland.  They  were 
queer  tubs,  smaller  than  we  trust  for  ocean 
travel  nowadays,  but  commanded  by  men  very 
singular  in  build  and  costume,  yet  intrepid 
navigators  ;  tars  as  adventurous  as  any  the 
world  has  ever  known.  Probably  the  imports 
were  of  such  a  character  as  would  shock  good 
temperance  people  of  to-day.  In  a  report  to 
the  Crown,  written  August  6,  1691,  and  signed 
by  Flypse  and  his  associates,  appears  this  para- 
graph :  ' '  New  Yorke  is  the  metropolis,  is  situ- 
ate upon  a  barren  island  bounded  by  Hudson's 
River  and  the  East  River  that  runs  into  the 
sound  and  hath  nothing  to  support  it  but  trade 
which  flows  chiefly  from  flour  and  bread  they 
make  of  the  corn  the  west  end  of  Long  Island 
and  Sopus  produces,  which  is  sent  to  the  West 


22  CbroiUcles  of  ^Tavr^town 


Indies  and  there  is  brought  in  return  from 
thence  a  Hquor  called  Rumm,  the  duty  whereof 
considerably  increaseth  your  7)iajesty's  revcmie^ 
In  the  light  of  such  a  document  we  can  easily 
understand  how  the  old  mill  came  to  be  a  port 
of  entry.  That  the  officer  who  made  such  a 
report  to  the  Crown  should  be  comptroller  of  a 
port  where  his  own  ships  unloaded,  no  doubt 
"  mightil}'  increased  "  his  own  revenue. 

During  the  troublous  times  of  which  some 
mention  has  been  already  made,  Lady  Mar- 
gareta  died,  and  Flypse,  with  his  usual  decision 
and  energy,  looked  about  him  straightway  for 
another  wife. 

He  found  before  long  a  worthy  successor  to 
Margarita,  in  Catharina,  the  daughter  of  old 
Oloffe  Van  Cortlandt  and,  therefore,  the  sister 
of  his  colleague,  Stephanus  Van  Cortlandt. 

The  marriage  took  place  soon,  and  Catharina 
Van  Cortlandt,  widow  of  John  Dervall  (who 
had  had  the  kindness  to  leave  her  a  large 
fortune)  became  Lady  Catharina  Philips  of  the 
Manor  of  Philipsburg.  Singularly  enough, 
this  is  the  only  Lady  Philips  that  tradition 
recognizes. 


atiD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


23 


This  alliance  made  Flypse  the  richest  man  in 
the  colony.  While  strengthening  himself  by 
this  means,  he  was  neither  lax  in  business  nor 
lazy  in  politics  as  his  years  and  his  influence 
grew  together. 

I  have  attempted  to  give  in  the  foregoing 
pages  a  faint  idea  of  the  character  of  Flypse, 
or  rather,  to  indicate  the  lines  upon  which  a 
study  of  that  strong  personality  may  be  pur- 
sued. It  is  a  well-worn  thought,  yet  I  venture 
it  again — that  no  man's  greatness  must  be 
measured  by  the  size  of  the  world  he  lives  in. 

That  Vredryk  was  a  statesman,  though  liv- 
ing and  laboring  in  a  petty  State,  the  inadequate 
record  of  his  acts  show.  With  strength  of 
will,  clear  judgment,  and  ambition,  he  was,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
foremost  man  in  what  is  now  the  Empire  State. 
Although  by  nature  and  all  his  sympathies  and 
circumstances  the  leader  of  the  ' '  patrician  ' ' 
party  in  the  infant  colony,  he  appears  to  have 
been  the  first  American  chosen  by  popular  vote 
as  a  popular  representative  in  the  little  cit}^  of 
his  adoption. .  With  his  hands  deep  in  every 
broth  which  his  colleagues  Bayard  and  Van 


24  Cbronicles  of  ^arrgtown 


Cortlandt  brewed ;  with  his  head  teeming  with 
wonderful  and  carefully  devised  schemes  for 
exercising  the  power  held  nominally  by  the 
Governor  of  the  colony,  he  yet  managed  to  make 
so  good  a  showing  to  the  Crow^n  that  the  seal 
ol  Whitehall  was  secured  to  endorse  his  acts. 

Beginning  life  with  the  saw  and  hammer  in 
his  hands,  he  laid  them  down  to  commence  the 
building  of  a  fortune,  w^hich  seemed  to  his  as- 
sociates colossal.  Coveting  an  estate,  he  se- 
cured one  of  the  fairest  in  the  colony,  where 
w^e  may  well  believe  his  word  w^as  law. 

One  episode  in  the  life  of  Flypse  we  must 
not  omit  to  mention.  As  a  merchant  his  ves- 
sels were,  in  common  with  all  that  sailed  the 
seas  at  that  day,  subject  to  the  dangers  inci- 
dent to  an  infant  commerce.  The  greatest  of 
these  was  that  arising  from  piracy.  Marauders 
of  every  grade  preyed  upon  the  vessels  which 
crossed  from  the  old  world  to  the  new.  At 
last,  upon  the  suggestion  of  Colonel  Living- 
stone, of  New  York,  William  Kidd  was  com- 
missioned to  act  as  a  sort  of  marine  patrol, 
or  constable  whose  duty  it  w^as  to  protect  the 
merchantman. 


mb  Sleeps  tbollow 


25 


The  history  of  Captain  Kidd's  own  career, 
his  perversion  to  the  lawless  class  he  was  sent 
to  make  war  upon,  and  his  subsequent  capture 
and  execution,  are  familiar  to  all. 

But  in  the  heat  of  political  strife  there  were 
not  found  wanting  those  who  noticed  that  the 
vessels  of  Flj^pse  and  his  friends  were  not  called 
upon  to  pay  toll  to  the  privateer.  A  whisper, 
which  was  not  stilled  for  many  years,  coupled 
the  names  of  Flypse  and  Bayard  with  that  of 
the  notorious  pirate. 

Was  it  from  this  source  that  that  other 
legend  arose  in  w^hich  a  certain  rock — still 
standing  like  a  sentinel  upon  the  river  wall 
within  rifle  range  of  Flypse' s  Castle — gained 
the  name  (by  which  it  is  known  to-da}-)  of 

Kidd's  Rock?" 

Flypse  died  in  1702.  The  son  who  ruled 
in  his  stead  was  Adolphus,  his  second  born. 
Philip,  the  elder,  married  a  lady  from  the  Bar- 
badoes  and  died  young,  leaving  one  son,  who 
took  his  father's  christened  name.  This  Philip 
Philips  was  afterwards  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  He  had  four  children,  to  whom  the 
estate  of  Philipsburg  reverted,  and  out  of  whose 


26  Cbronlclcs  of  c:arrsto\vn 


hands  it  passed  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution ; 
for  Frederick  Philips,  great  grandson  of  the 
founder  of  the  house,  was  as  weak  and  vacil- 
lating a  fellow  as  ever  let  a  wealthy  estate 
slip  through  his  fingers.  He  first  thought 
he  favored  the  Continental  cause,  and  then 
changed  his  mind  and  was  sure  he  belonged  to 
the  Tory  party.  While  he  was  making  up  his 
mind  he  was  exiled  to  Connecticut  on  parole. 
First  he  thought  he  would  keep  his  parole, 
and  afterwards  was  induced  to  break  it,  and 
the  result  was  that  he  was  surprised  into  an 
activity  that  resulted  in  the  confiscation  of 
Philipsburg  by  New  York. 

But  this  did  not  occur  for  a  long  time. 
When  Frederick  the  first  died,  his  son  Adol- 
phus  took  charge  of  the  baronial  affairs.  '  That 
he  did  so  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  all  parties 
concerned  is  evident  from  a  memorial  of  thanks 
presented  b\^  his  tenants  in  1716.  It  is  worth 
publishing  if  only  as  an  evidence  of  the  amount 
of  laudation  that  one  fairly  respectable  man 
could  stand  in  those  days.    It  runs  as  follows  : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  take  in  hand  and  com- 
plete, in  as  far  as  possible,  our  resolution  to 


an&  Sleeps  1)ollow  27 
* 

show  the  duty  of  thanks  which  we  owe  for  the 
many  mercies  done  to  your  servants  our  parents 
of  blessed  memory,  but  especially  to  us  your 
present  servants  and  women  servants,  from 
time  to  time  by  your  Hon.  Right  Honorable 
Lord  and  father  of  blessed  memory,  as  also 
from  your  honored  mother  of  blessed  mem- 
ory, the  Lady  Margarita,  as  also  by  your 
Lord  Father's  last  wedded  wife.  Lady  Catha- 
rina,  as  also  by  your  Honorable  Right  Honora- 
ble and  Noble,  very  wise  and  provident,  our 
Lordship  the  Lord  Adolphus  Philips,  viz  :  for 
the  many  benefits  done  to  us  your  faith- 
ful servants  and  women  servants  through 
various  favorable  means  and  good  instructions 
— we  therefore  pray  with  all  reverence  that 
your  honored  Lordship  will  receive  these  our 
small  thanks  according  to  our  small  deserts, 
and  we  your  honored  and  obedient  serv^ants 
will  remain  obligated  and  will  ever  be  your 
honorable  very  obedient  humble  servants, ' ' 

Imagine  the  feelings  of  the  man  who  should 
receive  to-day  such  an  epistle  as  that,  couched 
in  the  purest  of  low  Dutch!  A  Hollandish 
pedagogue  must  have  framed  those  sentences. 


28  Cbronicles  of  (Tarri^town 


Cornelius  was  a  bachelor.  He  was  a  man  of 
talent  and  influence.  His  life  was  passed  be- 
tween his  estate  and  the  metropolis,  where  he 
filled  the  office  of  Assemblyman,  and  was,  like 
his  nephew  Philip,  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  Indeed,  Adolphus  seemed  to  inherit 
not  only  a  large  portion  of  his  father's  wealth, 
but  considerable  of  his  character.  He  died  in 
1750,  aged  eighty-five  years.  In  person  he 
w^as  tall  and  of  commanding  presence. 

The  member  of  all  the  Philips  family  to 
whom  tradition  points  as  an  object  of  venera- 
tion is  the  stepmother,  Catharina.  She,  too, 
had  her  memorial  regularly  recorded  by  the 
venerable  Abraham  de  Revere,  in  which  lauda- 
tion chokes  itself.  Her  name  is  first  on  the  list 
of  members  of  the  church  she  possibly  helped 
to  build.  Before  it,  is  the  preamble  ' '  First  and 
before  all."  Her  title  was  sometimes  written, 
* '  The  Right  Honorable  wise  pious  and  very 
provident  lady,  widow  of  Lord  Fredryk  Flypse, 
who  did  here  very  praiseworthily  advance  the 
cause  of  religion." 

So  we  see  that  while  the  lady  was  pious, 
wise,  and  very  provident  (charitable  ?),  which 


ant)  Sleepy  Ibollow 


29 


makes  her  a  truly  phenomenal  woman,  her 
lord  is  almost  damned  with  faint  praise.  But 
apparently  Catherina's  distinguishing  piety 
began  with  her  widowhood.  Certain  it  is,  that 
both  the  husband  and  wife  on  state  occasions 
graced  with  their  presence  the  "  thrones," 
cushioned  and  canopied,  that  flanked  the  old 
octagonal  pulpit,  there  to  be  admired  by  the 
less  comfortable,  but  no  less  contented  tenants. 
And  certain  it  is  that  both  the  lyord  and  his 
Lady  lie  in  less  dignified  but  no  less  solemn 
state  beneath  the  church  floor  to-day. 

We  must  not  forget  Flypse's  daughters. 
Eva,  his  adopted  child  (according  to  Doctor 
Todd),  married  Cornelius  Van  Cortlandt,  and 
that  part  of  the  estate  where  Yonkers  now 
stands  was  given  to  her  for  a  marriage  por- 
tion ;  of  one  of  her  descendants  we  will  have 
something  further  to  say.  The  second  daugh- 
ter, Annetje,  married  Philip  French.  In  1702, 
I^ord  Cornbury  was  made  Governor,  and  that 
same  year  French  became  Mayor.  He  married 
upon  his  appointment  to  office.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  this  same  year,  1702,  Vredryk 
Flypse  died. 


30  Cbronicles  of  ^Tarri^town 


It  is  not  altogether  easy  to  dismiss  the  char- 
acters who  moulded  the  thought  and  manners 
of  many  people,  and  who  retained  for  nearly  a 
century  large  political  influence  and  powder  in 
what  are  now  the  counties  of  Westchester  and 
New  York. 

The  tenants  of  the  Flj^pse  estate  w^ere  the 
ancestors  of  many  of  the  people  w^ho  are  enjoy- 
ing the  nineteenth-century  luxuries  of  lighting 
and  locomotion  with  us  to-day.  We  are  wont 
to  bestow  our  gratuitous  pity  upon  the  victim 
of  saddle  and  sail-boat  and  monthly  post-man, 
in  the  far-off  days  when  w^heat-fields  waved 
from  the  manor-farm  to  the  forest  edge ;  when 
the  red  deer  drank  by  the  Pocantico,  and  the 
red  men  brought  furs  to  trade  for  '  *  rumm  ' '  at 
the  mill  ;  w4ien  from  some  urchin's  pocket  a 
chestnut  was  dropped  among  the  corn  rows, 
where  now^  the  great  tree  with  its  twenty  feet 
girth  lifts  a  coronal  of  plumes  in  the  centre  of 
the  fort3^-acre  lot ;  but  have  we  more  of  life,  of 
energy,  of  those  experiences  that  go  to  make 
up  our  sum  of  pain  and  pleasure  than  they 
had? 

When  the  property  passed  from  the  hands 


an&  Sleepy  f)ollow 


31 


of  its  original  owners,  one  of  the  old-time 
guests  who  possibly  looked  back  regretfully  at 
the  last  pages  of  that  chapter  was  George 
Washington.  Tradition  (the  jade)  tells  how 
the  father  of  his  country  courted  Miss  Philips 
before  he  met  the  admirable  Mrs.  Custis;  and 
twenty  j^ears  ago  one  could  see  the  room  in 
which  he  slept,  with  furniture  (so  they  said) 
unchanged. 

To  some  people  w^ho  have  been  accustomed 
to  regard  the  Flypse  family  as  among  the 
' '  Patroons, ' '  it  will  probably  be  a  great  disap- 
pointment to  learn  that  the}^  had  no  claim  to 
that  very  Dutchest  of  titles  being  lords  by  an 
English  creation,  and  not  through  the  favor 
of  the  States- General  of  Holland. 

When  after  the  Revolution  the  manor  of 
Philipsburg  was  confiscated  by  the  new  gov- 
ernment of  New  York,  the  lands  becoming  for- 
feit by  the  attainder  of  Sir  Frederic  Philips, 
last  of  his  name,  one  of  the  principal  grantees 
was  a  descendant  from  an  ancient  political  ad- 
versary of  Vredryk  the  first.  This  was  Gerard 
G.  Beekman.  Years  before,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, Eva  Philips  married  Cornelius  Van 


32  Cbronicles  of  Q:arretown 


Cortlaudt.  Her  granddaughter,  or  great-grand- 
daughter, CorneHa  Van  Cortlandt,  married 
Gerard  Beekman,  and  so  came  back  to  the 
manor  and  house  her  ancestor  founded. 

At  the  beginning  of  its  second  chapter  of 
histor}^  the  old  house  had  to  undergo  repairs 
and  alterations.  A  north  end  was  added, 
bearing  much  resemblance — externally — to  the 
old  part,  but  not  so  solidly  built.  Within,  the 
difference  in  ceiling,  doors,  and  mantels  are 
marked.  At  the  same  time  a  front  office  was 
added  to  the  mill,  and  that  part  is  now  greatly 
damaged  by  time.  The  moral  of  this  seems  to 
be  that  a  house  built  by  a  carpenter  has  the 
odds  in  its  favor. 

The  generation  that  came  in  with  the  Revo- 
lution passed  away — all  but  old  Mrs.  Beekman 
— who  had  been  Miss  Van  Cortlandt.  She 
lived  on  and  on  past  her  generation,  known 
and  loved  as  a  Lady  Bountiful,  the  good 
genius  of  the  neighborhood,  and  died  not  so 
long  ago  but  that  many  people  still  remember 
her.  She  used  to  tell  how  during  the  war  of 
Independence  she  had  lain  awake  all  one  night 
in  the  old  manor-house,  listening  to  the  rumble 


an&  Sleeps  Ibollow 


33 


and  grumble  of  the  Continental  Army  as  it 
passed.  Commenting  upon  this  story,  one  to 
whom  she  had  told  it  said  in  after  years  that 
he  did  not  understand  how  she  came  to  be  in 
that  house  at  the  time,  w^hen  it  w^as  Philips' s 
property.  Her  relation  to  the  Philips  family 
w411  explain  that  fully. 

Before  Mrs.  Beekman's  death  (she  lived  to 
be  nearly  a  hundred)  the  broad  acres  of  the 
estate  had  been  cut  dow^n  and  a  host  of 
strangers  had  crow^ded  into  the  town,  lured  by 
the  railroad  that  crossed  the  mouth  of  the 
pleasant  bay,  and  has  since  destroyed  it  en- 
tirely by  cutting  off  the  river  connection. 

After  a  while  the  house  passed  from  the 
Beekman's  hands.  Mr.  Foote  at  one  time  oc- 
cupied it  and  Captain  Jacob  Storm,  w^ho  was  a 
descendant  of  one  of  the  old  settlers.  It  be- 
came the  propert}^  of  the  late  Ambrose  Kings- 
land,  w^ho  bought  it  because  he  had  an  estate 
adjoining,  and  w^ho  "  improved^'  it  almost  past 
recognition.  One  of  the  family  removed  the 
machinery  of  the  old  mill ;  another  clapboarded 
the  sides  of  the  house,  not  liking  the  looks  of 
the  stone  walls,  and  made  other  additions  and 

3 


34  Cbroniclcs  of  tTarr^town 


alterations.  There  are  now,  I  think,  only  two 
old  mantels  left  of  the  several  that  I  can  re- 
member, and  these  are  in  the  modern,  or  Beek- 
man,  part  of  the  house.  Some  new  doors,  a 
row  of  dormer  windows  in  the  roof,  and  a  bal- 
conj^  and  piazza  are  also  of  a  modern  date; 
while  a  west  addition  completely  hides  the 
port-holes  where  the  howitzers  protruded  from 
their  lair  in  the  cellar.  Still  in  the  southwest 
corner  of  the  mill  a  number  of  small  holes  seem 
to  show^  w^here  a  load  of  shot  at  some  time 
missed  a  probable  designation  on  the  creek. 

The  big  chimney  on  the  west  side  gave  place 
to  a  smaller  one  in  the  centre,  and  its  Holland 
bricks  are  now  lining  part  of  a  more  modern 
house  in  the  village.  Verily,  the  old  house  has 
been  changed,  but  its  walls  and  roof  retain  their 
integrity ! 

I  hardly  know  how  to  classify,  or  w^here  to 
mention,  the  many  odds  and  ends  that  seem 
only  so  man}^  component  parts  of  a  historic 
rubbish-heap,  a  curious  jumble  of  lonely  and 
non-assorted  legends  and  relics  that  are  like 
the  scraps  and  the  drift  that  the  wasli  of  years 
has  deposited  as  tidemarks  in  the  old  mill. 


ant)  Sleeps  IboUow 


35 


There,  lying  among  shavings  of  more  modern 
pine,  one  may  come  across  a  piece  of  leather 
belting  and  cups  of  the  elevator  still  hanging 
therefrom,  marking  a  comparatively  recent 
date  in  grain  milling,  and  find  still  lower  down 
a  bit  of  century-carved  oak,  or  a  bolt  that  was 
driven  when  New  York  was  still  the  far  west. 
So,  like  witnesses  of  old-time  lawsuits,  or  like 
the  memories  of  old  men  touching  themes  that 
our  cyclopaedias  have  forgotten  to  mention, 
there  comes  a  rabble  of  hints  and  many  per- 
plexing half-lights  insisting  upon  our  recogni- 
tion of  them.  What  shall  we  do  with  them  ? 
Where  place  the  date  of  the  vessel  that  found- 
ered by  the  mill,  whose  last  rib  alone  marked 
the  place  of  her  resting  when  w^e  w^ere  boys  ? 
How  tell  the  story  of  the  old  bones  that  a 
frightened  tenant  found  in  the  cellar  corner  of 
the  manor-house — and  left  there  ?  What  is 
there  of  story  connected  with  the  spurs  that  were 
found  in  the  same  uncanny  corner  ;  did  they 
belong  to  the  bones  ?  Were  the  remains  really 
human,  of  foe,  or  slave,  or  lost  traveller,  of 
colonial  or  revolutionary  date ;  or  did  some  cel- 
lar-housed watch-dog  leave  his  larder  there  ? 


36  Cbroniclee  of  ^arrgtown 


What  shall  we  say  of  the  little  scales  that  have 
presumably  descended  from  Vredryk  Flypse, 
and  which,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
were  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Jas.  S.  See,  of 
North  Tarrytown  ?  If  they  w^ould  tell  us 
whether  they  gave  good  weight  or  not  we 
might  have  something  of  a  clue  to  the  hand 
that  first  held  them.  When  the  last  resident 
Philips  collected  his  last  rents  he  left  the  little 
gold  scales  at  the  house  of  Mr.  See's  ancestor, 
where  they  remained  for  more  than  a  century. 
They  are  now  treasured  by  Mrs.  James  Hawes. 
another  descent  of  that  old  time  tenant. 

In  the  old  church  is  an  old  oak  bier — who 
lay  upon  it  first  ?  Whose  ghostly  hand  is  it 
that  rattles  the  door  of  the  south  parlor  of  the 
old  house  when  no  one  can  be  seen  there  ? 
These  are  questions  that  the  historian  w^ho 
picks  them  up  must  drop  as  he  drops  the  piece 
of  leather  belting  or  the  wrought  bolt  back  to 
their  rubbish-heap  again.  Someone  else  may 
find  in  any  one  of  them  the  clue  to  a  mystery, 
or  the  hinge  for  a  tragedy  to  turn  upon.  A 
few  years  more,  and  probably  the  old  mill 
would  have  dropped  to  ruin  for  want  of  care, 


ant)  Sleeps  Ibollow 


37 


but  for  repairs  completed  at  the  time  of  this 
writing.  A  flood  several  years  ago  did  dam- 
age. Some  leaks  in  the  roof  made  more  mis- 
chief than  a  century  of  storm  beating  could 
have  done,  and  the  willows  that  folded  the 
creases  of  their  mighty  trunks  about  its  eaves 
tried  for  a  share  in  the  conclusion.  And  the 
inevitable  downfall  has  only  been  postponed. 
We  have  little  regard  for  anything  the  value 
of  which  is  based  upon  sentiment  only.  A 
few  3^ears,  at  most,  and  some  factory  or 
dwelling  must  take  its  place,  while  men  of  an 
antiquarian  turn  of  mind  dispute  about  the  site 
of  this  ancient  port.  Then,  in  some  still,  moon- 
lit midnight,  we  can  fancy  that  the  old-time 
worthies  will  steal  across  from  their  encamp- 
ment on  the  hillside  opposite,  and  grieve  be- 
cause they  cannot  find  in  the  great  house, 
wooden-cased  and  land-girt  as  it  is,  any  trace 
of  Flypse— his  Castle. 

Right  well  I  wote,  most  mighty  soveraine 
That  all  this  famous  antique  history 
Of  some  the  abundance  of  an  ydle  braine 
Will  iudged  be,  and  painted  forgery, 
Rather  than  matter  of  iust  memorie  ; 


38  Cbronlcles  of  ^arr^town 

Sith  none  that  breatheth  living  aire  doth  know 
Where  is  that  happy  land  of  Faerie, 
Which  I  so  much  doe  vaunt,  yet  no  where  show ; 
But  vouch  antiquities  which  no  body  can  know. 

— Spenser's  Faery  Queen, 


Ill 


TH^  STORY  OF  THK  OI.D  DUTCH  CHURCH 

T^HB  Story  of  the  old  Dutch  church  is  one 


I  which  the  sensitive  historian  commences 
with  caution  and  misgiving,  since  an  antiquity 
of  only  two  centuries  has  already  hidden  the 
end  of  its  perspective  in  a  mist  through  which 
nothing  very  definite  can  be  seen  ;  but  as  men 
are  more  apt  to  do  battle  for  their  opinions 
than  for  the  matters  that  they  know  beyond 
peradventure,  it  is  impossible  to  hazard  a  con- 
jecture upon  the  date  of  the  erection  of  the 
church  without  being  halted  and  belabored  by 
the  clubs  of  a  score  of  antiquaries. 

Near  Flypse's  castle,  hard  by  the  niillpond, 
between  the  Pocantico  and  the  graveyard, 
Vredryk  Flypse  and  one,  or  both,  of  his  wives 
built  a  sturdy  stone  church  with  gambrel  roof 
and  an  octagonal  rear.  Surmounting  the  front  a 


39 


40  Cbronlclcs  of  n:arrBtown 


belfry,  quaintly  misfitting  the  structure  below 
it,  pointed  its  dumpy  spire  heavenward  with  a 
sturdy  consistency  that  w^as  as  uncompromis- 
ingly HoUandish  as  the  sermons  that  the 
Dominie  droned  from  the  bell-flower  pulpit  to 
the  drow^sy  farmers  of  Philipsburg. 

When  the  church  was  new  there  w^ere  seven 
window^s  where  there  are  now  but  six,  and  a 
door  on  the  south  side  instead  of  at  the  west, 
as  at  present.  The  walls  w^ere  thirt}^  inches 
in  thickness,  and  the  sills  of  the  window^s  more 
than  seven  feet  above  the  floor,  so  that  the 
savage  foemen  who  lurked  in  the  woods  could 
not  look  in  upon  the  little  congregation.  Iron 
bars  traversing  these  openings  gave  still  greater 
securit)^  to  the  building  which  could  in  time  of 
danger  have  been  converted  into  a  fortress,  im- 
pregnable against  an}'  w^eapons  or  engine  that 
the  Indians  could  produce.  Between  the  door 
and  the  middle  south  window,  outside,  a  bench 
used  to  stand,  and  there  the  old  folks  rested 
while  w^aiting  for  the  dominie's  appearance;  for 
it  was  long  a  custom  to  follow  the  black  gown 
into  church  as  a  flock  of  sheep  follow  the 
bellwether. 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


41 


The  interior  of  the  church  showed  evidence 
of  taste  and  vSkill;  but  its  furniture  testified 
without  equivocation  to  the  recognition  of  class 
distinctions  even  under  the  shadow  of  the  pul- 
pit. The  dominie,  from  that  ornate  octagonal 
perch,  with  the  pendant  hexagon  of  mahogany 
that  hung  over  him  like  an  extinguisher,  giv- 
ing emphasis  to  his  sonorous  periods,  ex- 
pounded the  word  of  God  as  endorsed  and 
interpreted  by  the  Synod  of  Dortrecht.  Before 
him  sat  a  congregation  of  solidly  constructed 
Dutchmen,  whose  anatomy  could  stand  the 
strain  of  a  long  service  while  seated  on  back- 
less benches  of  unyielding  oak.  The  farmer 
who  tilled  his  acres  or  cut  his  wood  lot  in 
Sleepy  Hollow  was  not  carried  to  the  skies  on 
beds  of  flowery  ease,  by  any  means  ;  but  his 
lord,  who,  in  the  divine  ordination  of  degrees, 
had  been  made  to  enjoy  all  the  softer  delights 
of  life,  was  edified  while  reposing  in  a  cush- 
ioned and  canopied  * '  throne. ' '  Such  luxurious 
boxes,  somewhat  resembling  those  of  a  modern 
theatre,  were  arranged  for  the  lord  of  the 
manor  and  his  family  at  the  minister's  right 
and  left. 


42  Cbronicles  of  tTacrgtown 


The  humble  retainers,  slaves,  and  redemp- 
tioners,  sat  in  the  gallery  with  the  boys  and 
the  singers,  and  a  precentor  to  keep  them  all 
in  order.  From  the  top  of  the  walls  great  oak 
beams  crossed  the  church,  and  above  these  ex- 
tended an  arched  ceiling  of  whitewashed  oak, 
from  the  west  end  of  which  the  lower  part  of 
the  belfry  intruded  like  a  great  white  box  set 
against  the  wall.  The  belfrj-box  had  a  ladder 
leading  to  it  from  the  galler}',  and  a  round 
window  from  which  the  bellringer  could  see 
when  the  dominie  was  in  the  pulpit. 

Nowhere  was  the  local  color  of  Philipsburg 
more  strongly  brought  out  than  at  the  church. 
The  character  of  the  peaceful  community  of 
Philipsburg  must  have  been  for  a  while  some- 
thing between  Acadia  and  Eden,  with  a  dash 
of  Holland  to  flavor  it.  The  people  gathered 
about  their  head  for  council  and  for  protection 
as  in  some  earlier  patriarchal  government,  but 
there  was  no  overstepping  the  bounds  of  caste  ; 
men  had  not  yet  begun  to  be  bom  free  and 
equal.  But  something  more  nearly  approach- 
ing equality  obtained  on  the  Sabbath  day  at 
the  church.    Doubtless  there  were  great  and 


an&  Sleeps  Ibollow 


43 


influential  sinners,  and  miserable  sinners,  even 
as  there  are  big  fish  and  little  fish,  and  the  sal- 
vation of  the  proprietor  was  a  very  difierent 
matter  from  the  salvation  of  a  tenant;  but  still, 
when  they  were  all  gathered  at  the  manor 
church  on  a  Sunday,  while  Dominie  Ritzemer, 
or  Dominie  Mutzelius,  dealt  faithfully  with  their 
souls,  there  must  have  been  at  least  the  semb- 
lance of  a  fellow-feeling. 

There  came  Flypse  with  his  family  and 
guests,  gorgeously  arra^^ed  in  purple  and  fine 
linen.  The  women  wore  splendid  stomachers, 
laced  and  pearl  trimmed,  with  short  gowns  of 
rich  brocade  or  stiff  silk,  quilted  and  padded, 
and  cut  short  to  show  the  neat  ankles  in  their 
red,  clocked  stockings.  The  men  flourished  in 
long-skirted  blue  coats,  with  buttons  of  silver 
and  gold,  over  silken  small-clothes  and  hose. 
Their  tie  wigs,  and  their  buckles,  showed  that 
neither  head  nor  feet  were  considered  beyond 
the  pale  of  adornment.  The  children  were 
miniature  parodies  on  their  elders  ;  and  the 
dominie,  who  belonged  to  the  upper  ten,  ap- 
peared in  his  suit  of  respectable  black.  Next 
were  the  farmers,  dressed  in  home-spun,  linsey- 


44 


Cbronicles  of  ^Tarrstown 


woolsey,  and  all  manner  of  durable  stufifs,  the 
girls  trying  humbly  to  imitate  the  splendors  of 
the  great  dames.  After  the  farmer  folk  came 
the  negro  slaves  and  the  poorer  white  hangers- 
on  of  the  place  and  the  few  aboriginal  land- 
holders who  lingered  as  paupers  where  their 
sires  had  lorded  it  once. 

A  well-known  character  of  those  days  was 
old  Wolfert  Kcker,  who  was  the  builder  and 
proprietor  of  the  Wolfert 's  Roost,"  which 
Washington  Irving  has  made  familiar  to  all 
the  world,  as  Sunnyside.  Wolfert  Ecker  was  a 
man  to  be  trusted  both  by  his  neighbors  and 
his  landlord,  and  his  name  appears  third  on 
the  list  of  elders  of  the  church.  He  was 
elected  to  that  office  in  1698,  a  year  before  the 
building  was  completed,  if  we  are  to  take  the 
word  of  several  clerical  authorities. 

With  this  mention  of  Kcker  and  the  date  of 
his  election  the  unhappy  historian  brings  the 
hornets  about  his  head,  for  the  antiquary  who 
believes  that  1699  was  the  true  date  of  erection, 
as  placarded  on  the  front  of  the  church,  is  im- 
mediately up  in  arms  against  his  brother- 
antiquary  who  holds  that  the  Wolfert  Ecker 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


45 


election  in  1698  casts  a  doubt  upon  it.  I  may 
as  well,  having  made  this  plunge,  do  a  little 
splashing  in  these  vexed  waters.  First,  the 
date  on  the  tablet  in  the  front  or  west  wall  of 
the  church  states  that  the  building  was  erected 
in  1699  by  Frederick  Philips  and  Katrina  Van 
Courtlandt.  This  statement,  which,  so  far  as 
I  can  discover,  is  entirel}^  unsupported  by  a 
shadow  of  other  testimony,  is  inscribed  in  Eng- 
lish, a  language  not  used  in  the  church  till 
some  time  subsequent  to  the  war  for  Independ- 
ence. The  character  of  the  letters  is  one  com- 
paratively recent,  and  there  is  ever}^  probability 
that  the  tablet  was  put  up  at  the  time  of  the 
repairs  in  1837;  that  is  to  saj^,  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half  after  the  church  was  built.  Cer- 
tainly this  tablet  does  not  afford  very  strong  or 
convincing  evidence. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  date  on  the  bell  is 
1685.  This  bell  was  not  one  which  would  be 
likely  to  be  picked  up  in  stock  in  a  foundry  or 
a  store.  It  is  of  fine  workmanship,  and  is 
ornamented  with  a  pattern  in  relief  and  the 
raised  motto,  "Sz  Deus  pro  nobis  quis  contra 
710$. ' '    In  the  will  of  Katrina,  the  second  wife 


46  Cbronlclc0  of  n:arrstown 


of  Lord  Filipse,  that  good  lady  refers  to  '  *  The 
church  which  my  husband,  the  late  Lord,  etc., 
built." 

The  first  minister  of  whom  we  have  record 
was  called  to  the  Dutch  Church  of  Philipsburg 
in  1697  ;  this  is,  of  course,  suggestive.  But 
perhaps  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  that 
can  be  offered  by  those  whose  happiness  de- 
pends upon  adding  a  few  years  to  the  antiquity 
of  this  church  is  found  in  the  character  of  the 
people.  Though  not  fanatical,  the  Dutchmen 
were  great  church-goers,  and  it  seems  improb- 
able that  the  rich  proprietor,  surrounded  by 
a  rapidl}^  growing  tenantry,  having  built  for 
himself  a  house  which  won  the  denomination 
of  ' '  Castle, ' '  and  a  mill  that  has  survived  even 
the  inattention  of  its  owners  for  two  centuries, 
should  have  waited  fifteen  years  or  more  be- 
fore building  a  church.  There  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  any  great  delay  was  made  in 
building  it,  except  an  incongruous  tablet 
erected  about  1837  by  some  people  who  about 
the  same  time  proved  their  stupidity  by  turn- 
ing the  rare  old  inlaid  black-oak  communion- 
table out  of  the  church  and  afterwards  selling 


an&  Sleeps  Dollow 


47 


it  to  Judge  Constant  for  twenty-five  dollars. 
By  the  way,  this  table,  which,  with  the  silver 
communion- service  and  baptismal-bowl,  were 
the  gift  to  the  church  of  the  first  lord  of  the 
manor  and  his  last  wife,  are  now  in  use  in  the 
First  Reformed  Church,  which  is  the  daughter 
of  the  old  Dutch  church.  The  table  was  re- 
turned to  the  church,  and  now  bears  a  silver 
plate  with  an  inscription  stating  that  it  was  the 
gift  of  James  K.  Paulding. 

Beyond  the  Rev.  William  Bartholf,  first 
stated  minister  of  God's  Word  in  the  manor  of 
Philipsburg,  there  is  a  mist,  if  not  of  antiquity, 
at  least  of  real  ignorance.  If  any  one  preached 
to  this  people,  married  them,  christened  their 
babies  and  buried  their  dead  (and  we  suppose 
that  someone  must  have  done  some  of  these 
things  which  even  savages  do  not  fail  entirely 
to  celebrate),  neither  history  nor  tradition  has 
made  a  note  of  it. 

In  the  year  1697,  according  to  the  records 
begun  by  Abraham  de  Revere  in  17 15,  an  in- 
vitation was  given  to,  and  accepted  by,  "  the 
very  learned  and  pious  Guillaume  Bartholf, 
minister  at  Hackensack  and  Hagquackenon, 


48  Cbronlclce  of  {Tarn^town 


to  preach  for  them  and  administer  the  sacra- 
ments three  or  four  times  in  the  year  ;  and 
the  continuance  of  these  ordinances  until  the 
2d  of  November,  1715  ;  also  the  payment 
of  the  minister  for  these  services  ;  and  of 
Mr.  Van  Houten,  who  carried  him  on  those 
long  journeys  from  and  to  his  home  in 
Hakinsack." 

Mr.  Bartholf  was  an  American  by  birth, 
who  had  been  educated  for  the  ministry  in 
Holland  and  returned  to  his  native  land  to 
labor  in  what  would  now  be  considered  a 
home  missionary  field.  His  successor  was 
Frederick  Mutzelius. 

Johannes  Ritzemer  was  the  next  preacher.  It 
is  not  known  at  what  date  he  commenced  to 
minister  to  the  people.  He  was  a  man  of  ex- 
ceptional ability,  it  is  said,  having  been  hon- 
ored with  positions  of  trust  in  the  church. 
Educated  in  Holland,  he  labored  in  New  York 
City  from  1744  to  1784.  In  1755,  he  was  pastor 
of  Harlem,  Philipsburg,  Fordham,  and  Court- 
landt.  He  continued  to  fill  the  pulpit  of  the 
old  church,  at  how  frequent  intervals  we  do  not 
know,  till  the  Revolution.    In  1717,  the  con- 


atiD  Sleeve  IboUow 


49 


gregations  of  Courtlandt  and  Philipsburg  had 
united  to  support  the  religious  services  in  the 
latter  place. 

With  the  new  era  after  the  Revolution  came 
the  Rev.  Stephen  Van  Voorhees,  who  was 
identified  with  the  new  movement  by  which 
the  Dutch  Church  in  America  finally  separated 
itself  from  its  parent  in  Holland.  Mr.  Van 
Voorhees  was  the  first  candidate  licensed  by 
the  independent  American  Synod  in  1772. 
During  the  struggle  for  independence  the 
church  at  Tarrytown  had  been  frequently,  if 
not  entirely,  closed.  The  weddings  waited,  and 
the  babies  were  unbaptized,  and  the  converts 
unwelcomed ;  this  we  gather  from  the  records. 
After  that  memorable  struggle  the  little  hand- 
ful who  survived  resumed  their  church-going 
habits  and  began  by  renovating  the  house, 
which  had  fallen  somewhat  in  need  of  repair. 
In  the  first  enthusiasm  of  victorious  republi- 
canism they  attacked  the  ' '  Thrones  ' '  of  the 
lyOrd  and  Lady  of  Philipsburg,  and  tore  down 
the  hangings  of  silk  and  the  luxurious  seats, 
substituting  boxes  for  the  elders  and  deacons. 
"  No  more  lyords  and  Kings,"  they  cried. 


50  Cbronicle0  of  ^Tarr^tovvn 


But  under  this  rampant  radicalism  still  slum- 
bered Dutch  conservatism.  They  had  reached 
the  limit  of  innovation  when  they  established 
backs  for  benches  that  had  hitherto  been  back- 
less ;  comfortless  oak  boards  supported  on 
stanchions  so  placed  that  it  only  needed  a 
heavy  weight  at  the  end  to  convert  one  into  a 
perilous  ballista.  Reform  had  gone  as  far  as 
decency  permitted  ;  any  one  who  should  pro- 
pose more  was  a  dangerous  radical. 

The  offender  was  the  Rev.  Stephen  Van 
Voorhees.  After  they  had  secured  his  services, 
the  worshippers  in  the  old  church  began  to 
suspect  that  he  was  liable  to  explode,  and  they 
watched  him  jealously.  He  was  a  new-party 
man  and  they  belonged — the  more  they  thought 
it  over  the  more  they  were  sure  they  belonged 
— to  the  old  party.  Revolutions  would  do  well 
enough  in  State,  but  in  Church  they  would 
have  none  of  them. 

Now,  let  us  picture  a  scene  in  the  year  1785 
or  1786.  On  the  benches  under  the  church 
windows  the  old  cronies  sit  and  gossip  in  the 
sun.  A  group  of  hardy  men — men  who  have 
had  experiences  ranging  from  the  Sugar  House 


anO  Sleeps  Dollow 


51 


to  Yorktowii — loiter  near  the  door,  where  a 
retinue  of  small  boys  mimic  their  attitudes  in 
worshipful  silence  and  gravity,  cocking  one 
foot  over  the  other  and  expectorating  mightily, 
while  they  listen  to  what  these  great  men 
have  to  say,  belonging,  as  thej^  do,  to  the 
original  guild  of  hero-worshippers.  Along 
the  road  come  young  men  and  maidens,  with- 
out prudery  or  affectation,  carrying  their  Sun- 
day shoes  in  their  hands.  They  stop  at  the 
Pocantico  and,  having  washed  their  dusty  feet 
and  put  on  their  shoes,  ascend  the  bank  pain- 
fully to  join  their  elders. 

Finally  the  dominie  appears  and  saluting 
gravely  to  right  and  left,  he  leads  the  way  into 
the  church  ;  the  congregation,  with  much  rust- 
ling and  squeaking  and  stumbling  in  the  unac- 
customed shoes,  are  settled  in  their  accustomed 
places.  The  choir  has  scrambled  up  the  gal- 
lery stairs  and  the  service  begins.  Several  of 
the  people,  mothers  in  Israel  especially,  turn 
their  heads  towards  the  door  now  and  then  to 
scrutinize  a  little  group  of  late  comers.  There 
is  Solomon  Hawes  with  I/Ovine  Hammon,  his 
wife  (she  is  of  the  family  of  General  James 


52  Cbrontclea  of  TTarrctown 


Hammon,  or  Hammond),  and  their  infant, 
with  one  or  two  others. 

After  the  prayer  the  dominie  breaks  an  ex- 
pectant hush  with  the  customary  formula,  invit- 
ing those  parents  who  have  children  to  be 
baptized  to  present  them  and  Solomon  Hawes 
and  his  little  family  gather  about  the  altar. 
Heretofore,  there  has  been  nothing  strange,  but 
as  the  clergyman  takes  the  infant  out  of  her 
father's  arms  and  proceeds,  "  Lovinia,  I  bap- 
tise thee,"  etc.,  a  thrill  of  something  deeper 
than  surprise  goes  over  the  congregation. 

St.  Nicholas  defend  us,  and  the  States  Gen- 
eral of  Holland  and  the  Synod  of  Dortrecht  and 
all  other  things  Dutch  defend  us.  He  is  bap- 
tizing little  Lovine  Hawes  in  E7iglish. 

The  offense  was  one  which  the  people  did 
not  easily  forgive.  The  first  plunge  is  usually 
remembered,  and,  although  English  gradually 
superseded  Dutch  in  the  services  of  the  Church, 
Mr.  Van  Voorhees  was  not  popular  in  Philips- 
burg.  He  also  began  to  keep  the  church 
records  in  English,  thus  turning  the  weapon 
in  the  wound.    His  term  was  short. 

Mr.  Van  Voorhees  lived  on  the  north  side 


53 


of  Main  Street  at  its  intersection  with  Broad- 
way. 

Following  Mr.  Van  Voorhees  came  Rev. 
John  F.  Jackson,  who  preached  at  Tarrytown 
and  Harlem,  beginning  in  the  fall  of  1791  and 
continuing  till  1806.  He  died  pastor  at  Ford- 
ham  thirty  years  later.  He  was  a  man  of 
strong  physique  and  strong  mind,  who  became 
locally  celebrated  both  as  a  martyr  and  a 
prophet,  in  consequence  of  a  scandal  which 
arose  during  his  pastorate  at  Greenburg.  From 
18 1 2  till  1820  he  had  kept  this  church  full  to 
overflowing,  and  his  popularity  seemed  to  be 
great  till,  in  the  latter  year,  he  was  arrested  on 
a  charge  preferred  maliciously  by  some  of  his 
people.  Having  been  tried  and  acquitted,  he 
returned  to  the  church  to  preach  his  last  dis- 
course, using  as  a  text  the  words,  "  Your 
house  shall  be  left  unto  you  desolate."  With- 
in a  very  few  years  the  congregation  had 
dwindled  to  nothing,  and  the  house  was  closed. 

Of  all  the  dominies  Mr,  Smith  seems  to  have 
afforded  the  largest  fund  of  anecdote  to  the 
antiquary.  His  eloquence  and  geniality  made 
him  popular  even  while  his  eccentric  habits  ex- 


54  Cbroniclcs  of  ZTarrgtown 


posed  him  to  criticism.  With  a  carelessness 
that  amounted  to  slovenliness  in  his  personal 
habits,  he  exhibited  a  degree  of  energy  and 
zeal  in  his  professional  work  that  silenced  his 
critics.  Mr.  Smith  organized  the  church  at 
Unionville;  built  up  the  church  at  White 
Plains  largely  by  his  own  efforts;  preached  in 
private  houses  at  Dobbs  Ferry  till  a  public 
house  of  worship  was  erected  there;  and  drew 
hearers  for  miles  around  when  he  filled  the 
pulpit  at  Philipsburg. 

Tradition  does  not  leave  us  in  doubt  as  to 
the  figure  that  he  cut  in  that  pulpit,  when, 
having  regaled  himself  from  his  ample  mull  at 
the  end  of  the  hymn  before  the  sermon  he 
trumpeted  vigorously  throughout  the  collec- 
tion and  rose  to  his  discourse  with  the  unmo- 
lested snuff  in  driblets  staining  the  front  of  his 
not  otherwise  immaculate  waistcoat. 

But  when  he  preached,  as  his  eloquence 
began  to  thrill  his  hearers,  his  own  personality 
seemed  to  change,  and  those  who  listened  to 
him  could  not  remember  that  he  was  *  *  slovenly 
in  dress  and  careless  in  manners." 

It  sometimes  happens  that  at  harvest  time, 


an&  Sleeps  Ibollow 


55 


when  a  farmer  congregation  is  worked  to  the 
limit  of  its  physical  endurance,  its  members 
find  it  impossible  to  keep  their  eyes  open  at 
church  for  the  length  of  a  sermon,  though  it 
should  happen  to  be  delivered  with  all  the  elo- 
quence of  a  Beecher  or  a  Smith.  An  anecdote, 
sometimes  related  of  other  ministers,  but  origi- 
nal, I  believe,  with  Dominie  Smith,  is  to  the 
effect  that  upon  one  such  occasion  of  general 
somnolence  he  startled  his  sleeping  flock  by  a 
cry  of  * '  Fire  !  Fire  !  ' '  There  was  instant  con- 
sternation in  the  church.  Women  screamed 
and  men  scrambled  to  their  feet. 

*  *  Where  ?  where  ? ' '  was  the  excited  outcry. 
The  dominie  regarded  his  awakened  people 
sternly  for  a  moment,  and  then  with  the  mien 
and  accent  of  delegated  authority  he  thun- 
dered : 

**  In  hell  !  for  such  sleepy  Christians  as  you 
are." 

I^ess  was  thought  at  that  day  of  excess  in 
the  use  of  alcoholic  stimulants  than  now,  yet 
there  has  been  no  whisper  of  undue  indulgence 
on  the  part  of  the  popular,  careless,  convivial 
pastor,  though  when  a  parishioner  paid  his  re- 


56  Cbroniclca  of  ^Tarrgtown 


spects  at  the  manse,  the  bottle  of  Jamaica  rum 
was  always  forthcoming.  It  is  thought  that 
the  dominie's  wife  might  have  driven  a  man 
of  less  pliant  temper  to  drink  ;  for  if  ever  a 
Xantippe  lived  in  these  latter  centuries  to 
harass  a  philosophical  husband,  Dame  Smith 
was  that  woman.  On  one  occasion,  having 
some  difference  of  opinion  either  with  her  care- 
less lord  or  his  elders,  it  does  not  appear 
which,  she  locked  him  securely  in  his  study 
before  church  and  left  it  to  the  distressed  con- 
sistory to  discover  and  liberate  him  long  after 
the  hour  for  the  commencement  of  the  ser- 
vices. Another  prank  of  peculiarly  feminine 
ingenuity  coUvSisted  in  bringing  a  pillow  to 
church  and  ostentatiously  settling  herself  for 
a  nap  during  the  sermon.  A  peculiarly  scan- 
dalous exhibition  of  emotional  insanity  or  gen- 
eral cussedness,  or  whatever  it  was  that  ailed 
her,  was  in  driving  the  minister's  horse  at 
breakneck  speed  up  and  down  in  front  of  the 
church  while  the  worshippers  within  were  no 
doubt  casting  sidelong  glances  through  the 
door,  and  wondering  whether  the  quiver  of 
lightnings  was  empty. 


mt>  Sleeps  ibollow 


57 


As  we  remember  these  things  we  begin  to 
forgive  the  dominie  his  use  of  tobacco  in  every 
form,  and  his  careless  personal  attire,  his 
frayed  wristbands  and  rumpled  stock  and  soiled 
waistcoat.  We  plead  extenuating  circumstan- 
ces when  his  general  slouchiness  is  mentioned. 
Perhaps  Brummel  would  have  been  a  slouch  if 
he  had  been  wedded  to  Xantippe. 

Dominie  Smith's  body  lies  at  the  rear  of  the 
church  where  he  labored,  and  the  people  who 
laid  him  there  remembered  only  that  he  was 
their  faithful  and  much  loved  pastor. 

When  the  Rev.  George  Du  Bois  came  to 
Tarrytown  it  was  to  gain  rest  after  eighteen 
years  of  sermon-writing  and  pastoral  work  in 
a  city  parish.  He  officiated  at  the  old  Frank- 
lin Street  Church  in  New  York  City.  The 
call  to  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  of  Tarry- 
town  was  accompanied  with  a  promise  that  a 
new  church  edifice  should  be  built.  In  1837-^ 
38  $2032.86  was  paid  for  repairs  on  the  old 
church,  and  between  $6000  and  $7000  ex- 
pended upon  the  South  Church  and  parsonage. 
Mr.  William  Landrine  was  one  of  the  promi- 
nent parishioners  at  that  time,  and  by  his  per- 


58  Cbronlcles  ot  ^rarrgtown 


sonal  efforts  raised  $761.75  out  of  the  $2032.86 
required  for  repairing  the  old  church.  Mr. 
Smith  had  received  but  $300  per  annum  for  his 
services.  This  salary  was  raised  to  $700  for 
Mr.  Du  Bois,  whose  labors  included  a  ser\'ice 
in  the  old  church  in  the  morning  and  in  the 
South  Church  in  the  evening.  At  this  time 
the  Sundaj'-school  of  the  old  church  used  to 
meet  comfortably  in  the  gallery.  In  1844,  Mr. 
Du  Bois  followed  his  predecessor,  and  was 
buried  in  the  old  churchyard. 

In  1845,  Joseph  Wilson  came  and  filled  the 
joint  pulpits  till  1849,  when  he  was  succeeded 
by  John  IMason  Ferris,  who,  in  three  or  four 
months  after  settlement,  refused  to  preach  at 
all  in  the  old  church,  and  confined  his  minis- 
trations to  the  South  Church.  This  move  ne- 
cessitated the  employment  of  an  assistant,  at 
an  expense  parth'  met  by  Mr.  Ferris,  and  for 
a  3^ear  the  Rev.  John  W.  Schenck  filled  that 
position,  but  was  never  installed. 

With  the  division  of  the  church  into  two 
congregations,  worshipping  in  separate  build- 
ings, for  that  was  necessarily  the  outcome  of 
the  erection  of  the  South  Church,  there  came 


anO  Sleepy  Ibollow 


59 


in  a  short  time  a  complete  separation  of  inter- 
ests which  led  to  divorce.  The  division  of 
church  property  followed.  The  North  Church, 
or  old  organization,  retained  the  old  building, 
graveyard,  name,  seal,  records,  and  plate;  and 
the  South  Church  assumed  a  debt  of  $1000  and 
gave  to  the  North  Church  $2000.  All  other 
realty  w^as  released  to  the  South  Church. 
Church  Street,  south  of  the  Benedict  property, 
owes  its  name  to  having  been  built  upon  a  por- 
tion of  this  estate. 

It  was  to  the  pastorate  of  over  sixty  families 
and  one  hundred  and  fifty  members  that  re- 
mained to  the  old  church  after  the  division 
that  the  Rev.  Abel  T.  Stewart  was  called  in 
1852.  It  was  during  his  ministry  that  the  re- 
moval w^as  made  by  the  congregation  from  the 
old  building  to  the  ' '  new ' '  one  it  at  present 
occupies. 

But  before  Mr.  Stewart  came  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Brush  was  called.  According  to  the 
chronicler,  ' '  He  came,  saw  the  state  of  things, 
and  in  three  months  resigned  without  being 
installed." 

A  man  of  more  than  ordinary  strength  was 


6o  Cbronicles  of  (Tarrgtown 


the  Rev.  Abel  T.  Stewart;  the  last  preacher  at 
the  Old  Dutch  Church.  Of  his  clerical  labors 
I  shall  not  speak  here,  except  to  say  that  he 
was  an  earnest  if  not  pre-eminently  an  eloquent 
preacher.  To  the  man,  outside  of  his  pulpit, 
a  tribute  of  admiration  may  justly  be  paid. 
Those  w^ho  only  knew  him  casually — the  later 
comers  to  the  town — remember  a  somewhat 
serious  divine,  whose  courage,  impetuosity, 
and  natural  humor  w^ere  repressed  by  his  sense 
of  what  was  due  to  his  sacred  calling ;  but  the 
men  who  grew  up  under  his  care,  the  members 
of  his  Sabbath-school  at  an  earlier  day,  recall 
incidents  that  show  him  to  have  been  an  ex- 
ample of  what  modern  slang  calls  ' '  muscular 
Christianity." 

He  was  an  enthusiastic  follower  of  Isaac 
Walton's  gentle  craft,  angling  for  trout  in  the 
Gebney  brook  and  the  Carl  brook  and  down 
the  Pocantico  at  a  day  when  Sahno  Fontinalis 
was  not  a  rarity  in  the  neighboring  streams. 
Mr.  Amada  Bryant  is  one  of  those  who  recol- 
lect how  the  "  domine  "  used  to  get  the  cream 
of  the  spring  angling,  appearing  frequently 
with  a  full  creel  when  some  of  his  less  fortunate 


6i 


parishioners  were  laboriously  whipping  the 
stream  over  which  he  had  gone.  No  matter 
how  early  in  the  morning  one  started,  he  was 
apt  to  prove  himself,  for  that  occasion,  as  un- 
lucky a  fisherman  as  Simon  Peter,  if  it  chanced 
that  Mr.  Stewart  had  selected  the  same  day  and 
the  same  stream  for  his  fishing. 

Members  of  Mr.  Stewart's  Bible-class  have 
told  how  the  athletic  pastor  excelled  in  jump- 
ing, running,  and  throwing  quoits.  A  famous 
jump,  by  which  he  cleared  the  body  of  a  farm 
wagon,  in  a  line  over  the  high  rear  wheels,  was 
long  the  admiration  of  the  youth  of  the  neigh- 
borhood. Well-knit,  tall,  and  muscular,  he 
was  the  ideal  of  an  athlete  in  his  younger  days, 
recalling  vividly  Lowell's  line  : 

*'  He  was  six  foot  of  man,  A  i,  clean  grit  and  human 
natur'." 

On  one  occasion  when  the  Sunday-school 
children  were  proceeding  on  foot  along  the 
railroad  track  to  a  place  selected  for  the  an- 
nual picnic,  the  entire  companj^,  scholars  and 
teachers  alike,  were  panic-stricken  at  the  near 
approach  of  a  train.    The  road  was  then  a 


62  Cbronlclee  of  ^Tarrgtown 


single  track,  and  at  that  point  occupied  the 
crest  of  an  embankment,  on  each  side  of  which 
the  ground  sloped  precipitously.  The  one  per- 
son who  did  not  lose  his  head  was  the  minister. 
Putting  his  long,  athletic  legs  and  arms  in 
motion,  he  rushed  like  an  animated  windmill 
through  that  little  crowd  of  juvenile  humanity 
and  cleared  the  track  effectually,  rolling  his 
charges  right  and  left  dow^n  the  slope.  I  give 
this  story  as  I  got  it  from  several  reputable 
witnesses,  though  I  confess  I  never  could  quite 
■understand  how  he  did  it. 

There  was  an  incident  in  Abel  T.  Stewart's 
life  which  entitles  him  to  be  ranked  among  the 
heroes.  When,  during  the  troublous  times  of 
the  Civil  War,  the  terrible  outbreak  w^hich  we 
speak  of  with  a  shudder  as  "  the  '63  riots," 
taxed  the  strength  of  New  York's  defenders  to 
the  utmost,  a  band  of  several  hundred  rioters 
w^as  reported  to  be  on  the  road  to  Tarry  town. 
There  was  consternation  in  every  home. 
Word  came  from  unquestioned  sources  that 
the  torch  was  to  be  applied  to  Tarry  town,  and 
men  armed  themselves  and  secured  the  de- 
fences to  their  houses  as  w^ell  as  they  were 


anC)  Sleeps  Ibollow 


63 


able  to  do.    Over  the  hills  a  long  line  of 

negroes  fled  to  the  woods  to  escape  a  threat- 
ened massacre.  I  am  not  now  speaking  from 
hearsay.    I  saw  this. 

The  rioters  were  within  a  short  distance  of 
the  town,  and  no  man  in  the  community  dared 
put  himself  in  their  way  till  Abel  T.  Stewart, 
minister  of  God's  Word,  accompanied  by  one 
faithful  companion,  Captain  Oscar  Jones,  a 
soldier  home  on  furlough,  marched  out  with 
splendid  audacity  to  meet  them.  There  were, 
indeed,  several  citizens  who  would  have  gone 
but  were  providentially  detained  b}^  appoint- 
ments and  other  devices  of  a  faint  heart,  long 
before  the  enemy  came  in  sight.  Mr.  Stewart 
and  his  one  companion  did  not  dream  of  turn- 
ing back.  The  chances  were  overwhelmingly 
against  them  ;  neither  they  nor  any  of  their 
townspeople  could  have  reasonably  expected 
that  they  would  return  alive  ;  and  yet  the  man 
of  peace  and  the  soldier  just  returned  from  the 
front  went  on  their  way  as  quietly  as  they 
would  have  gone  to  church.  Nowhere  is  there 
a  record  of  a  braver  forlorn  hope. 

Mr.  Stewart  met  the  rioters  and  reasoned 


64  Cbronicles  of  ^Tarr^town 


with  them.  He  told  them  that  their  reception 
would  be  warm  ;  that  a  gunboat,  which  had 
just  arrived  in  the  river,  would  shell  the  houses 
of  their  sympathizers  without  mercy  if  they 
persisted  ;  he  used  cogent  reasoning,  convinc- 
ing even  to  such  a  bloodthirsty  mob  of  anarch- 
ists; and  in  the  end  he  succeeded  in  turning 
them  back.  Then  he  went  quietly  home  and 
began  to  write  his  sermon  or  do  whatever  duty 
lay  nearest. 

You  imagine  no  doubt  that  the  people  at 
least  thanked  this  man  who  had  offered  his  life 
as  a  buffer  between  them  and  mob  violence  ? 
No.  They  discovered,  from  the  narrative  of 
his  companion,  that  Mr.  Stewart,  in  addressing 
the  rioters,  had  called  them,  "  My  friends," 
and  their  indignation  ran  so  high  (remember 
the  partisan  prejudice  of  war  times  and  try  to 
forgive  them)  that  they  could  see  no  bravery 
nor  goodness  in  this  man.  He  was  a  Demo- 
crat ;  as  such  doubtless  a  secessionist,  and 
therefore,  of  course,  a  friend  of  the  rioters  : 
ergo,  there  was  no  possible  danger  to  him  in 
facing  them. 

The  world  is  full  of  people  who  have  missed 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


65 


their  opportunities  ;  a  class  of  people  whose 
number  was  greatly  added  to  when  the  popula- 
tion of  Tarrytown  neglected  to  recognize  and 
to  honor  A.  T.  Stewart,  whose  story,  I  think, 
has  never  before  been  told  in  print.  There  is 
only  a  line  to  add.  Partisan  animosity  and 
misunderstanding  were  so  strong  that  the  use- 
fulness of  the  minister  of  the  First  Reformed 
Church  was  greatly  curtailed,  and  at  last  it 
seemed  wiser  for  him  to  seek  new  fields  of  use- 
fulness, and  to  labor  in  some  town  that  he  had 
never  saved. 

With  the  close  of  Mr.  Stewart's  ministry  in 
1866,  properly  closes  the  history  of  the  Old 
Dutch  Church  as  a  place  of  worship.  Though 
it  is  opened  on  Sunday  afternoons  in  summer 
for  service,  and  many  eloquent  men  have 
spoken  from  its  quaint  pulpit,  yet  its  value  is 
rather  as  a  relic  than  a  house  of  worship  to- 
day. The  effort  which  is  at  present  being 
made  to  repair  and  preserve  it  is  the  result  of 

a  strong  and  worthy  popular  sentiment, 
s 


IV 


SUNNYSIDB) 


HE  home  of  Wolfert  Ecker,  one  of  the 


early  officers  of  the  Old  Dutch  Church, 
has  been  celebrated  under  the  title  of  Wolfert' s 
Roost.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  its 
tenant  was  Jacob  Van  Tassel,  the  hero  of 
the  goose  gun,"  whose  well-known  patriot- 
ism attracted  men  of  the  same  stripe  from  Tar- 
ry town.  Sleepy  Hollow,  and  Petticoat  Lane  ; 
so  that  his  house  became  a  rallying  point  for 
half  the  hot-headed  3^outh  of  the  country  side. 

The  property,  held  before  the  war  as  part  of 
the  manorial  right  of  the  Philipse  estate  by  the 
tenant,  was  convej^ed  afterwards  to  Van  Tas- 
sel under  the  act  of  forfeiture. 

In  March,  1802,  Jacob  Van  Tassel  sold  the 
property  to  Oliver  Ferris,  whose  grandson, 
Benson  Ferris,  is  the  President  of  the  Westches- 


66 


I 


Cbroniclee  of  ZTarr^town  67 


ter  County  Savings  Bank.  Benson  Ferris  the 
first,  the  father  of  the  present  bearer  of  the  name, 
married  a  lineal  descendant  of  Wolffert  Kcker. 

In  Washington  Irving' s  youth,  while  a 
guest  at  the  Paulding  house,  (now  destroyed), 
he  frequently  rowed  a  boat  to  the  willows  that 
overhung  the  little  brook  that  runs  through 
the  Sunny  side  glen,  and  read  or  dreamed  away 
long  summer  afternoons  in  the  shade  of  its 
elms.  A  deep  satisfaction  with  a  spot  that 
seemed  so  thoroughly  in  accord  with  his  own 
gentle,  retiring,  and  contemplative  disposition, 
gained  so  firm  a  hold  upon  the  imagination  of 
the  future  author,  that  in  all  his  wanderings 
through  England  and  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
he  never  forgot  the  little  house  with  its  sun- 
flecked  lawn  reaching  down  to  the  river;  nor 
the  quality  of  its  beauty. 

In  1835,  finding  himself  again  in  America 
and  somewhat  improved  in  worldly  fortune, 
Mr.  Irving  visited  the  familiar  place  and  pur- 
chased it.  At  that  time  he  told  Mrs.  Ferris 
that  he  had  resolved,  years  before,  that  if  he 
ever  owned  a  piece  of  ground  that  he  could  call 
home,  it  would  be  there.     It  is  pleasant  to 


68  Cbronicles  ot  (Carrgtovvn 


thiuk  that  the  welcome  guest  in  London  and 
Paris,  the  courtly  minister  in  Madrid,  always 
cherished  in  his  heart  the  picture  of  a  little  bit 
of  his  own  land;  and  that  after  years  of  exile 
he  could  enjoy  the  fulfilment  of  his  dream. 

The  rebuilding  of  Sunnyside,  as  he  named 
the  house,  and  the  elaboration  of  quaint  con- 
ceits in  its  architecture  and  adornment,  afforded 
Mr.  Irving  some  of  the  happiest  hours  of  his 
life.  From  the  simple  and  rather  featureless 
American  cottage  of  that  day  the  building 
was  developed  into  a  very  Dutch  countr^^-seat, 
unique  among  the  many  charming  homes  on 
the  river  banks.  It  remains  in  the  possession 
of  a  member  of  the  Ir\4ng  family. 

Washington  Irving' s  social  life  in  the  neigh- 
borhood he  had  chosen  was  ideally  delightful 
to  a  man  of  his  temperament.  The  quiet 
round  of  country  pleasures,  long  rambles,  rides 
to  the  village  or  to  a  neighbor's,  explorations 
and  discoveries  in  Sleepy  Hollow,  and  long  ex- 
citing quests  after  a  character  or  a  legend,  were 
alternated  with  congenial  social  intercourse, 
and  seasons  of  studious  labor  in  his  comfort- 
able library. 


an&  Sleepy  Ibollow 


69 


Mr.  Irving' s  life  in  Tarry  town  was  that  of  a 
citizen  who  took  pleasure  in  identifying  him- 
self with  the  interests  of  his  neighborhood.  In 
Christ  Church,  which  he  attended  regularly, 
he  was  a  warden.  His  simple,  unaffected  cour- 
tesy made  him  a  welcome  guest,  not  only  in 
the  parlors  of  wealthy  and  influential  people, 
but  in  the  homes  of  many  of  his  humbler  neigh- 
bors. It  pleased  him  to  stop  for  a  chat  at  this 
or  that  door-yard  gate;  and  not  a  child  could 
pass  without  his  kindly  notice.  The  influence 
which  has  spread  like  a  charm  from  Sunnyside 
has  been  that  of  its  master's  personality  more 
than  of  his  genius. 

Among  a  coterie  of  cultivated  people  who 
enjoyed  the  gentle  humorist's  friendship  was 
General  James  Watson  Webb,  the  editor  of  the 
Courier  and  Enquirer,  who  lived  at  Pokahoe, 
an  estate  on  Broadway  north  of  the  village. 
This  place  was  afterwards  the  home  of  the 
"  Pathfinder,"  General  Fremont,  and  is  now 
owned  by  Mrs.  Monroe.  The  late  Mr.  George 
D.  Morgan  was  one  of  Mr.  Irvdng's  intimates, 
and  was  present  at  his  death.  Another  of 
those  who  enjoyed  his  friendship  was  his  near 


70 


Cbroiuclc6  of  Carrvitown 


neighbor,  Mr.  Edward  S.  Jaffray,  between 
whose  household  and  that  of  Sunnyside  de- 
lightfully cordial  relations  existed.  Hon. 
Moses  H.  Grinnell,  w^ho  married  Mr.  Irving' s 
niece  ;  James  H.  Banker;  William  Hoge  and 
Henry  Holdredge  were  also  among  the  well- 
know^n  men  w^ho  were  in  almost  dail}^  associa- 
tion with  the  master  of  Sunnyside. 

It  was  at  this  quaint  Dutch  cottage  that  the 
Life  of  Washington  was  WTitten  ;  here  Louis 
Napoleon,  afterwards  Emperor  of  France, 
called  to  pay  his  respects;  and  here  the  fine, 
sweet  spirit  of  Irvdng  passed  on  November  28, 
1859. 

The  ivy  which  overruns  Sunnyside  is  as 
green  as  the  fame  and  memory  of  Irving.  He 
brought  it  from  Melrose  in  Scotland,  and 
planted  it  by  the  wall  of  his  home  by  the 
Hudson. 


MK  NEUTRAL  GROUND 


TV  TO  part  of  the  country  was  so  harried," 
I  ^  says  Irving,  ' '  by  friend  and  foe  alike, ' ' 
as  this  neighborhood.  When  the  war  for  Inde- 
ependence  was  declared,  a  dozen  families  where 
the  village  of  Tarrytown  now  is,  and  perhaps 
as  many  more  scattered  through  Sleepy  Hollow 
and  over  towards  the  Sawmill  River,  comprised 
all  that  we  can  reckon  of  the  population.  The 
majority  of  the  men  were  farmers,  who  knew 
how  to  handle  a  gun,  who  could  stalk  a  deer, 
or  encounter  a  bear  with  skill  and  courage. 
Such  people,  abandoned  by  the  necessities  of 
war  to  the  tender  mercies  of  marauders  and 
stock  thieves,  were  not  long  in  devising  waj's 
to  defend  themselves.  A  sort  of  home  guard, 
in  which  it  is  said  that  women  as  well  as  men 
did  duty,  was  organized  to  picket  the  highway. 
71 


72 


Cbronlcles  of  ^Tarr^town 


and  check  the  raids  of  cowboys  and  skinners. 
Some  joined  the  band  which,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  V^an  Courtlandt,  at  Croton,  patrolled 
the  river  in  whale-boats,  and  were  a  serious 
source  of  annoyance  to  the  British  men-of-war 
and  transports. 

Depleted  granaries  and  empty  smoke-houses 
brought  the  people  often  to  the  verge  of  starva- 
tion, and  they  deteriorated  from  a  prosperous 
little  community,  in  which,  while  no  one  ex- 
cept the  manor-lord  was  very  rich,  neither  was 
any  one  very  poor,  to  a  wretched  handful  of 
hungry  outcasts,  holding  their  inch  of  ground 
by  force  of  cunning  and  skill.  During  the 
years  of  the  war  the  church  was  empty  and 
unopened  for  service  ;  the  faint  tinkle  of  its 
bell  never  called  the  congregation  to  w^orship. 
There  was  no  school  open,  and  the  boy  who 
was  growing  up  in  those  years  of  conflict  knew 
more  of  hare-brained  adventures  and  hair- 
breadth escapes  than  of  figures;  while  the  only 
part  of  speech  in  which  he  became  proficient 
was  the  adjective,  caught  in  its  redundant 
variety  from  the  passing  trooper. 

With  the  closing  of  the  church  and  the  ab- 


anD  SleepB  Dollow 


73 


sence  of  any  minister,  such  familiar  rites  as 
baptism,  marriage,  and  burial  were  attended  to 
not  at  all,  or,  at  best,  in  a  lame,  lay  fashion. 
The  infants  born  during  the  war  were  pre- 
sented for  baptism  at  a  convenient  season  after 
the  restoration  of  peace ;  but  whether  the  same 
facilities  were  extended  to  marriage  nobody 
now  knows. 

The  last  lord  of  the  manor  had  ' '  retired ' ' 
from  his  estates,  which  were  afterwards  con- 
fiscated by  the  Government  and  sold  or  granted 
to  other  aspirants.  There  seems  to  have  been 
some  sort  of  occupation  of  the  old  house  dur- 
ing part  of  the  war  time  at  least,  for  there  are 
those  now  living  who  can  remember  hearing 
*  *  Grandma  ' '  Beekman  tell  how  she  once  lay 
sleepless  in  one  of  its  rooms,  and  heard  all  night 
the  rumble  of  the  artiller}^  and  the  tramp  of 
men  and  of  horses  when  Washington  passed 
this  way  to  unite  with  the  Frenchmen  in  an 
advance  upon  New  York.  On  this  memorable 
occasion,  according  to  General  Washington's 
diary,  he  halted  for  rest  at  the  Old  Dutch 
Church,  which  is  opposite  the  manor-house 
grounds. 


74  Cbroniclcd  ot  Carrgtown 


Many  of  the  young  men  joined  themselves 
to  the  American  side,  and  suflfered  wounds  and 
death  for  the  cause  of  liberty.  Several  knew 
the  inside  of  the  fatal  prison-ships,  where  men 
went  mad  from  starvation  and  filth  and  con- 
finement; and  death  was  the  only  merciful  at- 
tendant. 

There  was  not  much  law  or  order.  Such  as 
there  was  was  of  a  military  stamp.  Colonel 
Hannuon — or  Hammond — was  a  leading  spirit, 
organizing  and  executing  with  half  the  roy- 
stering  blades  of  the  countryside  at  his  back. 

Van  Tassels,  Van  Warts,  Sees,  Requas, 
Martlings,  Couenhovens,  Deans,  and  others 
whose  descendants  are  still  living  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, became  locally  celebrated,  during  the 
dark  days  of  the  war,  for  personal  courage. 
Indeed,  if  the  statement  made  by  Bolton  and 
others  is  nearly  accurate,  that  there  were  about 
a  dozen  houses  in  Tarrj-town  at  the  close  of 
the  war  for  Independence,  then  we  must  won- 
der that  so  small  a  settlement  could  produce  so 
large  a  number  of  heroes. 

To  give  some  clear  idea  of  the  activity  of 
this  very  little  hamlet,  w^hich  seemed  to  swarm 


an&  Sleeps  IboUow 


75 


like  a  hornet's  nest  whenever  molested  by  an 
invader,  a  chronological  list  of  the  leading 
events  which  occurred  here  between  1776  and 
1782  has  been  prepared.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  the  roles  enacted  upon  this  little  stage 
were  usually  filled  by  local  talent. 

On  Saturday,  July  13,  1776,  George  Comb, 
Joseph  Young,  James  Hammond,  and  others, 
constituting  the  Committee  of  Safety  at  White 
Plains,  sent  a  letter  to  General  Washington, 
ir. forming  him  that  frigates  belonging  to  the 
British  had,  with  several  tenders,  arrived  at 
Tarry  town.  The  report  added  that  powder 
and  ball  had  been  sent  to  that  place,  and  allu- 
sion was  made  to  public  stores  there.  The 
war-ships,  Phmiix  and  Rose,  were  in  the  Tap- 
pan  Zee,  we  learn  from  other  authority,  on  the 
14th  and  15th  of  July,  and  General  Hammond 
wrote  a  letter  announcing  their  departure  on 
the  26th.  Bolton  cites  the  original  letters. 
Washington  Irving,  in  his  Life  of  WasJmtgfofi, 
states  that  Pierre  Van  Courtlandt  organized 
his  famous  River  Guards  and  sent  them  out 
that  year.  The  loyalty  and  activity  of  the 
yeomen  of  the  neighborhood  made  them  valu- 


76  Gbronicle6  ot  C^arrgtown 


able  recruits,  and  their  knowledge  of  the  vari- 
ous hiding-places  along  the  shore,  in  the  bays 
and  coves,  enabled  them  to  be  peculiarly  har- 
assing to  the  British.  The  men,  untrained  to 
war,  soon  found  as  much  delight  in  banging  at 
the  enemy's  frigates  as  they  had  previously 
enjoyed  in  winging  duck  or  bagging  pigeons. 
Their  flotilla  consisted  of  whale  boats  that 
found  snug  hiding  in  the  * '  Hafeiije ' '  or  the 

Slapering  Hafeyiy  A  patrol,  which  tradi- 
tion says  was  composed  of  all  brave  people,  no 
distinctions  of  sex  or  color,  kept  the  roads, 
and  the  coming  of  the  enemy's  fleet  was  her- 
alded by  beacon-fires  that  blazed  from  Kaakiat, 
and  were  reflected  along  the  crests  of  the 
Greenburg  hills. 

There  was  a  convention  held  at  White  Plains 
in  July,  1776.  During  that  month  and  the  suc- 
ceeding one.  General  Putnam  tried  to  obstruct 
the  Hudson  where  it  is  narrower,  below  the 
Tappan  Zee,  by  sinking  vessels  there,  and  plac- 
ing chains  and  chevaux  de  /rise  to  prevent  the 
escape  of  the  war-ships  that  had  gone  up  the 
Hudson.  On  the  i8th  of  August,  fire-ships  as- 
cended the  river  for  the  purpose  of  destroying 


anC)  SlcepB  t)oUow 


77 


the  enemy's  vessels  in  the  Tappan  Zee.  They 
were  partly  successful,  as  they  burned  one  of 
the  tenders  and  frightened  away  the  ships.  In 
Irving' s  Life  of  Washington  special  mention  is 
made  of  this  encounter. 

On  the  9th  of  October  of  the  same  year,  the 
British  vessels,  Phoeriix,  Roebuck,  and  Tartar 
sailed  up  the  Hudson.  When  opposite  Tarry- 
town,  the  watchful  inhabitants  of  the  place 
sent  a  post  to  Peter  R.  Livingstone,  President 
of  the  Provincial  Congress,  at  Fishkill. 

On  the  authority  of  Heath's  Memoirs,  we 
learn  that  in  January,  1777,  General  Washing- 
ton made  a  movement  of  the  militia  and  volun- 
teers under  General  Heath  from  Peekskill 
towards  New  York,  in  order  to  draw  the 
enemy  from  New  Jersey.  General  Lincoln's 
division,  several  thousand  strong,  marched  to 
Tarry  town  on  the  14th  of  January,  and  en- 
camped here  till  the  17th,  when  they  proceeded 
towards  Kingsbridge. 

In  March,  1777,  the  British  force  which  was 
unsuccessful  in  its  attack  upon  Peekskill,  upon 
being  driven  off  from  that  village  made  for 
Tarrj^town,  with  the  avowed  intention  of  de- 


78 


Cbronlcles  of  ^Tarr^town 


stroying  the  stores  at  Wright's  Mill.  This 
was  possibly  the  time  that  the  Water  Guard, 
having  built  a  lunette,  or  redoubt,  at  the  foot 
of  Church  Street  (which  is  the  street  which 
runs  west  to  the  river  from  Broadway  opposite 
Major  Hopkin's,  formerl}^  Robert  Hoe's,  place) 
fired  upon  the  Vulture,  sloop- of- war,  which  had 
grounded  on  ballast  reef. 

Doctor  Todd,  in  Scharf's  History  of  Westchest- 
er Cotinty,  states  that  in  October  of  that  year 
Colonel  Luddington  was  in  command  of  five 
hundred  militia  at  Tarrytown,  when  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  ascended  the  river  with  a  flotilla  of 
transports  containing  about  five  thousand 
troops.  These  landed,  and  Luddington  had 
the  temerity  to  parley  with  their  officer;  but 
finding  that  he  stood  in  imminent  danger  of 
being  surrounded  and  cut  to  pieces  with  his 
little  force,  he  wisel}^  beat  a  retreat.  Putnam's 
account  of  this  matter,  written  from  Peekskill, 
where  he  was  at  that  time  guarding  the  High- 
lands of  the  Hudson  with  a  force  of  iioo  Con- 
tinentals and  400  militia,  is  to  the  effect  that 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  had  called  in  the  Croton 
guides, ' '  and  had  moved  two  ships  of  war  and 


an&  Sleeve  Ibollow 


79 


three  tenders  up  the  Hudson,  and  had  landed 
their  men  at  Tarry  town. 

We  learn  from  General  Parson's  correspond- 
ence that  British  refugees  under  the  notorious 
Captain  Bmmerick  surprised  the  houses  of 
Peter  and  Cornelius  Van  Tassel  on  the  17th 
of  November,  1777,  and  burned  them  to  the 
ground,  stripping  the  women  and  children,  and 
leaving  them  exposed  to  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather;  while  the  men  ♦were  carried  away 
prisoners,  to  languish  in  the  old  Sugar  House 
in  New  York,  or  to  die  in  one  of  the  pestilential 
prison-ships,  in  the  Wallabout  basin.  Bolton 
speaks  of  the  Van  Tassels'  houses  as  being  near 
"  Captain  Romer's  "  house.  The  destruction 
of  the  Van  Tassels'  houses,  and  the  outrages 
accompanying  it,  were  instigated  by  Governor 
Try  on,  at  New  York,  and  were  well  in  accord 
with  what  we  read  of  that  cruel  and  vindictive 
man's  character.  A  further  order  to  destroy 
Tarry  town  emanated  from  the  same  source, 
and  drew  forth  a  strong  and  indignant  letter 
of  remonstrance  from  General  Parsons  of  the 
Continental  Army.  This  letter  may  be  found 
in  the  Colonial  History  of  New  York. 


8o  Cbroniclcs  of  ^Tarrgtown 


' '  A  party  of  liberty  boys,  headed  by  the 
daring  and  impetuous  Martlings,  came  down 
from  the  American  lines  on  the  25th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1777,  and  burned  his  [Oliver  de  Lancey's] 
house  at  Bloomingdale,  by  way  of  revenge," 
says  Mary  L,.  Booth  in  her  History  of  New  York. 
Bolton,  in  alluding  to  the  same  occurrence,  saj-s 
that  it  was  in  retaliation  for  the  burning  of  the 
Van  Tassels'  homes.  There  were  a  number  of 
Tarrytown  boys  in  that  fora}',  which  was  cer- 
tainly as  daring  and  wild  as  any  border-raid  that 
Scott  has  recorded.  Probably  the  clan  mus- 
tered— w^e  can  imagine  the'm  dropping  in  by 
twos  and  threes,  Van  Tassels,  Couenhovens, 
Sies,  Yerks,  Van  Weerts,  Storms,  and  all  the 
other  patriotic  3^outh  of  the  neighborhood — at 
Elizabeth  Van  Tassel's  tavern.  Their  leader, 
the  impetuous  "  Martlings,  was  Abraham,  the 
brother  of  that  Isaac  w^ho  is  known  as  the 
Martyr.  Hot  with  indignation,  the  brave  fel- 
lows pushed  on  over  the  twenty  miles  that  lay 
between  them  and  the  British  lines,  and  then, 
with  admirable  recklessness,  penetrated  those 
lines  and  applied  the  torch  to  the  dwelling  of 
one  of  the  principal  citizens  of  New^  York,  the 


anD  Sleeps  f)ollow 


8i 


brother  of  the  lieutenant-governor.  There 
were  men  in  Tarrytown,  even  in  those  days. 

February,  1778,  opened  with  an  attack  (on 
the  2d  and  3d)  upon  Young's  house  in  the 
valley  of  the  Neperhan.  Young's  was  famous 
as  a  yoeman's  rendezvous  for  the  sympathizers 
with  the  Continental  cause,  and  it  was  a  thorn 
in  the  side  of  the  British,  or  rather  a  hornet's 
nest,  hung  just  beyond  their  outposts,  where 
turbulent  spirits  swarmed  and  issued  only  to 
sting.  Although  Young's  was  but  an  ordinary 
dwelling  house,  3'et  it  was  defended  in  such  a 
vigorous  and  spirited  manner  that  it  took  six 
companies  of  infantry,  besides  cavalrj^  and 
guns,  under  Colonel  Norton,  two  days  to  sub- 
due it;  and  then  the  garrison  were  only  dis- 
lodged when  the  house  was  burned  over  their 
heads.  A  great  many  men  were  killed  in  this 
action,  and  prisoners  to  the  number  of  ninety 
were  taken  to  the  old  Sugar  House  in  New 
York. 

That  same  year  saw  a  sharp  skirmish  on 
Broadway  south  of  Petticoat  Lane;  or,  as  it  is 
now  called,  the  White  Plains  Road.  A  com- 
pany of  Tinnop's yagers  were  on  their  way  from 


82  Cbrontcles  of  ^Tarr^town 


Kingsbridge  to  White  Plains  when  the}'  were 
met  and  defeated  by  Colonel  Richard  Butler 
and  a  company  of  cavalry  under  Major  Henry 
Lee. 

In  Gaines'  IVeekfy  Aferairj'  there  was  pub- 
lished an  account,  which  Bolton  quotes,  of  the 
landing  of  one  thousand  one  hundred  English 
troops  at  Tarrj'town,  on  the  9th  of  October, 
1778.  The  British  embarked  on  bateaux  at 
Peekskill  and  proceeded  the  same  night  to 
Tarrytown,  where,  coming  ashore  at  daybreak, 
they  occupied  the  adjoining  heights. 

It  was  in  1779,  on  the  20th  of  May,  that 
Isaac  Martlings,  the  son  of  Abraham  Mart- 
lings,  Sr.,  and  brother  of  Captain  Daniel 
Martlings,  was  inhumanely  slain,"  as  his 
tombstone  states,  by  Nathaniel  Underbill.  A 
popular  account  of  this  affair  based  upon  Bol- 
ton's story,  confounds  it  with  one,  and  perhaps 
two,  other  tragedies  under  the  general  name  of 
the  Massacre  of  Sleepy  HoUotv.  There  were 
without  question  people  killed  in  Sleepy  Hol- 
low^  and  ' '  Polly  ' '  Buckhout  was,  at  another 
time  and  place,  shot  by  mistake  because  she 
had  a  man's  hat  on;  but  the  murder  of  Mart- 


anb  Sleepy  iboUow 


83 


lings,  "  the  Martyr,"  seems  to  have  been  dis- 
tinct from  these.  According  to  the  narrative 
of  his  great-granddaughter,  as  published  some 
time  ago  by  Mr.  M.  D.  Raymond,  Sergeant 
Isaac  Martlings  was  crossing  the  road  to  the 
spring,  not  far  from  the  old  Daniel  Martlings' 
house  (the  only  one  of  that  ancient  group  of 
dwellings  still  standing  on  Water  Street), 
when  Underbill  set  upon  him  and  killed  him. 
He  was  taken  into  a  house  near  by  and  the 
murderer  escaped. 

The  cause  of  this  attack  is  said  by  tradition 
to  have  been  an  old  grudge  which  Underbill 
held  against  Martlings,  who  had  tied  him  by 
his  heels  to  a  beam  in  his  own  barn  and  made 
him  eat  oats  out  of  a  measure.  It  was  at  a 
time  when  the  people  were  starving,  and  Un- 
derbill refused  to  share  with  them  the  grain 
with  which  his  lofts  were  filled,  and  which  his 
Tory  influence  had  preserved  and  protected. 
It  is  further  believed  that  after  Martlings  was 
slain,  Underbill  never  dared  to  show  his  face  in 
Tarr>^town  again. 

The  foregoing  account  of  Martlings'  death 
is  gathered  from  Bolton,  Raymond,  and  other 


84  Cbroniclee  of  ^arretown 


authorities;  from  local  legends,  and  from  Isaac 
Martlings's  tombstone,  which  is  still  standing. 

A  party  of  cowboys  (date  not  given)  were 
checked  in  a  skinnish  with  John  Dean  and 
others  near  the  Couenhoven  place,  which  was 
afterwards  Martin  Smith's  tavern,  on  the  cor- 
ner of  Broadway  and  Main  Street. 

The  great  event  of  1780,  not  only  for  Tarry- 
town  but  for  the  United  States  (and  therefore 
for  the  world)  occurred  upon  the  24th  of  Sep- 
tember. On  that  memorable  date,  the  British 
spy.  Major  Andre,  was  captured  while  on  his 
way,  in  disguise,  to  New  York,  with  treason- 
able dispatches  from  Benedict  Arnold.  Various 
sentimental  efforts  have  been  made  to  palliate 
the  conduct  of  a  man  who  had  worked  long 
and  successfully  to  corrupt  the  military  virtue 
of  one  whose  reputation  had  before  been  un- 
blemished. Not  only  by  his  act  of  entering 
the  American  lines  in  secret  and  trying  to 
escape  in  disguise,  while  engaged  in  a  business 
which  was  certainly  nefarious,  did  Andr6  ren- 
der himself  liable  to  the  penalty  he  afterwards 
paid,  but  he  merited  it  even  more,  by  his  pa- 
tient and  laborious  preparations  to  effect  Ar- 


MONUMENT  TO  THE  CAPTORS  OF  ANDRE 

FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  BY  F.  AHRENS 


85 


nold's  treason.  His  was  the  guilt  of  one  who 
systematically  worked  to  corrupt  another. 

This,  however,  is  not  the  place  for  such  a  dis- 
cussion. Our  history  has  only  to  do  with 
events  enacted  upon  the  local  stage,  and  of 
these  the  capture  of  Andre  was  by  far  the  most 
important.  His  captors,  John  Paulding,  David 
Williams,  and  Isaac  Van  Wart,  were  militia- 
men who  were  scouting.  They  had  come  across 
country  from  the  Eastward  the  day  before, 
stopping  over  night  at  a  hay-rick  near  Pleas- 
antville,  and  crossing  by  way  of  Buttermilk 
Hill,  on  the  morning  of  the  24th,  to  the  Tarry- 
town  side.  There  were,  according  to  Williams's 
narrative,  four  others  in  their  party.  They 
separated  at  the  Davis,  or  Davids,  farm,  now 
the  residence  of  Mr.  James  Hawes,  whose  wife 
is  a  descendant  of  the  original  tenants. 

The  trio  followed  the  road  for  about  a  mile, 
and  then  hid  in  the  bushes  on  the  east  side,  on 
what  is  now  Mr.  Eugene  Jones's  property. 
Two  of  the  party  played  cards  in  their  conceal- 
ment, while  the  other  watched  the  highway. 
In  this  manner  they  spent  the  time  till  a  horse- 
man appeared,  riding  south,  and  they  promptly 


86 


Cbroniclcs  of  tTavrgtown 


halted  him.  Andre,  for  it  was  he,  bhindered 
ill  the  first  place,  by  asking  them  to  what  party 
they  belonged,  and  announcing  himself  as  of 
the  "  southern,"  /.  e.,  the  English  party.  The 
result  of  this  indiscretion  was  a  more  rigorous 
search  than  would,  perhaps,  otherwise  have 
been  made,  and  the  eagerness  of  the  captors 
increased  with  that  of  the  prisoner,  who  offered 
them  his  watch,  his  horse  and  a  large  sum  of 
money  if  they  would  let  him  go.  The  same 
class  of  sentimentalists  who  have  whitewashed 
Andre  have  belittled  his  captors,  trying  to  show 
that  they  were  mere  bandits.  If  they  had  been 
so,  no  one  who  reads  the  historical  testimony 
carefully  can  doubt  that  Andre  would  have 
gone  on  his  way  to  New  York  a  free  man,  and 
Arnold's  treachery  would  have  been  successful. 

But  John  Paulding  and  his  fellows  were  in- 
corruptible ;  their  lo^^alty  was  above  bribes, 
and  their  sj^stematic  search  was  rewarded  by 
finding  in  the  prisoner's  stockings  the  papers 
which  Arnold  had  written  to  Sir  Henry  Clin- 
ton, betraying  the  post  and  army  entrusted  to 
him.  When  Major  Andre  was  taken  from  the 
place  of  capture,  the  first  stop  made  was  at  a 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


87 


house  which  is  still  standing  on  the  old  road  to 
White  Plains,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley 
from  the  Northern  Railroad  depot.  There  the 
Adjutant- General  of  the  British  Army  rested 
on  a  wooden  step  at  the  bottom  of  the  stairway 
and  was  regaled  by  a  kind-hearted  hostess  with 
a  bowl  of  bread  and  milk.  The  step  upon 
which  Major  Andre  sat  is  still  preserved,  and 
little  alteration  has  been  made  in  that  part  of 
the  house.  Shortly  after  the  war  the  house  in 
question  became  the  property  of  a  family  named 
Reed  and  was  sold  at  a  later  date  to  William 
lyandrine,  whose  son,  William  B.  Landrine, 
sold  it  to  Mr.  Kingsland.  It  is  now  the  prop- 
erty of  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller. 

The  capture  of  a  large  party  of  British  at  the 
Van  Tassel  tavern  (the  Jacob  Mott  homestead) 
by  Major  Hunt,  occurred  in  1780.  Hunt  and 
John  Archer,  with  others,  had  gone  to  West- 
chester. I  have  found  no  record  of  the  source 
by  which  information  reached  them  of  the 
presence  of  the  English  party  at  the  Tarry- 
town  inn.  They  came,  surrounded  the  house 
and  broke  in  upon  the  unsuspecting  guests, 
who  rose  in  astonishment  and  consternation 


88  Cbronicles  of  CTarrgtown 


from  a  game  of  cards  they  were  playing,  at  the 
challenge  of  Hunt,  who  carried  a  heavy  stick 
in  his  hand. 

"  Gentlemen,  clubs  are  trumps." 

In  the  struggle  which  ensued  before  the 
prisoners  were  secured  Major  Hunt  prevented 
Archer  from  killing  one  of  his  adversaries,  tell- 
ing him  that  ' '  the  highest  sense  of  honor  in  a 
soldier  is  to  protect  his  prisoners."  What 
makes  this  cbnduct  seem  the  more  humane  is 
the  fact  that  Hunt's  brother  had  been  slain  by 
the  British  only  a  short  time  before.  This 
story  is  one  of  several  with  which  Major  Hunt's 
name  is  associated.  Upon  another  occasion  he 
was  at  See's  store,  on  the  Bedford  road,  when 
he  saw  a  party  of  English,  or  Hessians,  coming 
down  the  road.  He  was  unable  to  cope  with 
them  and  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  run 
for  his  life.  He  set  out  at  a  nimble  pace  in  the 
direction  of  the  Cold  Spring  bridge,  where  an 
icy  little  rivulet  crossed  the  Albany  turnpike 
(Broadway),  in  the  valley  north  of  the  present 
cemetery  gate.  A  prosaic  drinking-trough 
now  marks  the  place.  Three  men  followed  the 
"  rebel,"  sure  that  at  last  they  could  overhaul 


I 
I 
i 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


89 


and  overpower  him.  But  Hunt  was  a  man  of 
rare  wind  and  muscle,  and  not  being  bothered 
with  the  accoutrements  of  his  pursuers,  he  soon 
tired  them.  I^ooking  back  from  time  to  time, 
he  at  last  perceived  that  they  were  tailing  off. 
Then  he  turned  (whether  he  recollected  that 
there  was  a  classic  precedent  for  what  he  did  I 
cannot  say)  and  succeeded  in  mastering  them 
one  at  a  time,  proving  the  truth  of  the  adage 
and  living  "  to  fight  another  day." 

On  the  6th  of  July,  1781,  the  French  army 
marched  from  Northcastle  to  Philipsburg,  on 
the  Tappan  Zee,  to  unite  with  the  Amerian 
encampment  there.  The  place  of  this  camp 
was  on  hills  overlooking  the  river,  between 
Tarrytown  and  Dobbs  Ferry.  Between  the  two 
armies,  according  to  an  eye  witness,  at  the  bot- 
tom of  a  ravine  there  flowed  a  rivulet.  On  the 
8th,  two  days  after  the  arrival  of  the  French- 
men, General  Washington  reviewed  both 
armies.  We  are  told  that  several  of  the  French 
officers  constructed  a  pretty  garden  about 
their  abode  which  showed  that  the  encampment 
made  some  approach  to  permanency.  Kleven 
days  passed  in  this  pleasant  location,  when  the 


QO  Cbronlclcs  ot  ^Tarr^towii 

General  "  brought  the  whole  allied  force  to 
arms.  The  cause  of  this  alarm  was  the  sound 
of  firing  which  came  from  the  direction  of 
Tarrytown,  which  was  close  at  hand.  But 
after  "  remaining  in  line  of  battle  for  half  or 
three  quarters  of  an  hour, ' '  according  to  Count 
de  Deux  Fonts,  they  "  received  orders  to  re- 
turn to  their  tents."  What  happened  at 
Tarrytown  to  make  the  allied  French  and 
American  armies  cock  their  ears  was  an  action 
as  spirited  as  anything  which  occurred  during 
the  whole  course  of  the  war,  although  it  w^as  not 
sufficiently  important  in  its  connection  with 
other  events  to  warrant  a  place  in  general  his- 
tory. Several  British  vessels,  frigates  and 
tenders,  had  been  hunting  for  American  vessels 
loaded  with  supplies  for  the  army.  On  the 
evening  of  the  15th  of  July,  w^hich  was  a  Sun- 
day, two  sloops,  which  were  going  down  the 
river,  loaded  with  powder  and  cannon,  put 
into  Tarrytown  to  avoid  the  British  fleet.  The 
enemy  followed  these  vessels  closely  and  there 
seemed  little  possibility  of  escape.  There  were 
in  Tarrytown  at  the  time  only  a  sergeant's 
guard  of  French  infantry,  and  a  troop  of 


an5  StecpB  Ibollow 


91 


mounted  dragoons,  commanded  by  Colonel 
Sheldon,  whose  regiment  lay  at  Dobbs  Ferry. 
The  latter  were  at  once  commanded  to  dis- 
mount and  assist  in  unloading  the  stores.  But 
although  they  worked  with  great  celerity,  it 
was  impossible  to  anticipate  the  arrival  of  the 
English  ships  which  came  to  an  anchor  and 
began  a  heav}^  fire,  under  cover  of  which  two 
gunboats  and  four  barges  were  sent  to  destroy 
the  sloops.  Captain  Hurlburt,  of  the  Second 
Regiment  of  Light  Dragoons,  was  on  board  of 
one  of  the  vessels,  with  twelve  men,  whose 
equipments  consisted  onl}'  of  swords  and  pis- 
tols. Th^y  made  what  resistance  they  could, 
but  in  the  end  were  obliged  to  jump  overboard 
and  swim  for  the  shore,  upon  which  the  English 
boarded  the  sloops  and  set  fire  to  them.  They 
could  not  hold  the  position  more  than  a  few 
moments,  owing  to  the  galling  fire  of  the 
French  infantry  and  the  dismounted  dragoons, 
and  hardly  had  the}^  retired  when  Hurlburt 
and  sev^eral  other  brave  men  plunged  into  the 
river  and,  swimming  back  to  the  burning 
sloops,  succeeded  in  extinguishing  the  flames. 
When  we  consider  the  nature  of  the  cargoes 


92  Cbroniclcd  of  C^arrgtown 


which  these  Uttle  vessels  carried,  and  the  ter- 
rible risk  from  explosion  which  Captain  Hurl- 
burt  and  his  companions  braved,  their  act  does 
not  seem  less  than  heroic.  It  may  be  added 
that  these  brave  men  received  the  commenda- 
tion and  thanks  of  General  Washington  in  the 
General  Orders  of  July  19th,  four  days  after 
the  event.  Captain  Hurlburt  was  wounded 
while  in  the  water  and  never  recovered  from 
the  effect  of  his  hurt,  suffering  terribly  till  death 
relieved  him,  nearly  two  years  later.  As 
authority  for  this  account  of  the  action  at 
Tarry  town,  w^e  have  Count  William  de  Deux 
Pouts' s  Campaigns^  Dr.  Thatcher's  Military 
yo2ir7ial,  Moore's  Diary  of  the  A77terican  Revo- 
lution, and  General  Washington's  Journal  for 
1 78 1,  besides  Doctor  Coutant's  account  and 
minor  mention  from  several  sources. 

And  now  having  got  down  to  1782,  we  must 
close  this  chronology  with  an  untow^ard  event. 
In  the  spring  of  the  year  three  American  militia- 
men, Yerks,  Van  Wart,  and  Henr}^  Strong, 
were  at  Strong's  house,  w^hich  was  near  the 
Underbill  place,  when  the  house  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  small  party  of  Tories  under 


93 


Ivieutenant  Acherl^^  and  the  inmates  captured 
and  taken  to  New  York.  Whether  they  were 
released  before  the  end  of  the  war  I  have  no 
way  of  knowing. 

A  few  words  relative  to  Andre's  capture  may 
not  inappropriately  be  added.  The  Westchester 
Herald,  in  its  issue  of  Jan.  28,  1823,  published 
the  following  communication  : 

It  seems  that  Andre  cautiously  avoided 
the  more  public  routes  and  travelled  on  through 
the  interior  until  he  arrived  within  about  two 
miles  of  the  present  poor-house  belonging  to 
this  town.  He  stopped  at  the  house  of  an  old 
lady,  still  living,  and  made  the  most  minute  in- 
quiries respecting  the  precise  position  of  the 
American  encampment,  informing  her  that  he 
was  extremely  desirous  to  arrive  at  the  camp 
by  the  shortest  route  and  as  quickly  as  possible  ; 
especially  anxious  to  know  whether  the  troops 
were  near  the  White  Plains  or  at  Tarrytown, 
and  very  solicitous,  apparently,  to  understand 
all  the  intelligence  respecting  their  stations. 
She  informed  him  that  the  last  she  had  heard 
of  them  was  that  they  were  towards  the  White 
Plains  ;  upon  this  he  proceeded  towards  Tarry- 


94 


Cbroniclcs  of  Carrgtovvn 


town.  .  .  .  Thus  the  old  lady's  inform- 
ing Andre  that  no  American  troops  were  in  the 
vicinity  of  Tarrj  town,  was  the  primary  cause 
of  the  defeat  of  that  complicated  treacher>- 
which  menaced  wdth  destruction  the  freedom 
and  independence  of  the  United  States. ' ' 

Another  account,  which  I  have  seen  pub- 
lished but  once,  is  to  the  effect  that  when  Andre 
was  captured  the  horse  that  he  rode  was  covered 
with  burrs  from  the  pasture,  he  having  made  an 
exchange  in  the  course  of  his  journey,  leaving 
his  own  tired  nag  in  the  place  of  a  fresh  one 
which  he  "  borrowed." 


MYTHS  AND  LEGENDS 


95 


VI 


THK  SPOOK  ROCK 

IN  the  days  before  the  railroad  was  built,  the 
population  of  Tarrytown  was  small  and  the 
majority  of  the  inhabitants  were  farmers  ;  good, 
plain,  practical  people,  not  given  to  romancing 
and  the  inveterate  foes  of  novelty.  Some 
elderly  folk,  whose  memories  take  them  back 
to  the  thirties,  remember  the  story  of  the 
Spook  Rock  as  it  was  transmitted  to  them  from 
their  parents  and  grandparents,  which  should 
satisf}^  any  sceptic  of  its  genuine  antiquity. 

Not  far  from  the  cottage  of  Hulda,  the  witch, 
it  stood ;  but  it  was  an  ancient  landmark  before 
Sleepy  Hollow  mothers  ever  used  Hulda' s 
name  to  frighten  their  babies  into  obedience. 
Tradition  says  that  sachems  and  medicine  men 
of  the  Leni  Lenapes  built  their  council-fires 

7 

97 


98  Cbronicles  of  ^Tarri^town 


about  it  when  the  world  was  young  ;  for  the 
Spook  Rock  was  an  Indian  shrine. 

One  night  a  young  Indian  returning  late  from 
a  hunt  and  passing  near  the  council  rock,  was 
surprised  to  see  lights  moving  in  that  direction, 
while  at  the  same  time  his  ears  were  assailed 
by  the  sound  of  musical  voices.  Not  being 
ignorant  of  the  sacred  character  of  the  place 
and  the  miraculous  things  that  had  occurred 
there,  his  curiosity  was  at  once  aroused  and  he 
crept  cautiously  from  tree  to  tree  till  he  came 
upon  a  sight  of  extraordinary  interest.  A 
dozen  girls,  beautiful  beyond  anything  that  the 
young  man  had  ever  imagined,  were  dancing 
on  the  surface  of  the  rock.  Linking  hands, 
and  leaning  far  outward  in  the  rapid  figure,  they 
seemed  to  tread  on  the  very  edge  of  the  stone, 
if  indeed  they  touched  anything  more  solid 
than  the  air  at  all.  To  the  bewildered  and  de- 
lighted watcher  they  were  like  a  ring  of  forest 
leaves  that  have  been  caught  up  and  whirled 
around  by  the  wind. 

Their  voices  were  as  sweet  as  their  bodies 
were  beautiful  and  graceful,  and  no  one  could 
have  mistaken  them  for  anything  less  than 


anD  Sleepy  Ibollow 


99 


celestial,  even  if  there  had  not  been,  in  the 
centre  of  the  circle  around  which  they  danced, 
a  great  basket,  which,  as  every  one  knows, 
is  the  approved  vehicle  when  heavenly  maids 
pay  a  visit  earthward. 

The  scene  was  lit  by  unearthly  flambeaux 
that  flared  among  the  trees  like  Will-o'-the- 
wisps. 

The  singing  and  the  dancing  grew  wilder 
and  madder  and  more  fascinating  every  mo- 
ment, till  the  solitary  spectator  forgot  himself 
and  gave  a  cry  of  admiration.  In  a  moment, 
half  frightened  and  half  laughing,  the  bevy 
scrambled  into  the  basket,  with  little  screams 
and  pretty  panics,  like  girls  that  would  fain  go 
a-slumming  and  retreat  at  the  first  sight  of  a 
tipsy  man.  In  they  crowded,  hugger-mugger, 
higgledy-piggledy,  all  but  one,  who  lingered  a 
moment  and  looked  back.  She  was  the  most 
beautiful  of  them  all.  Then,  in  a  moment,  she 
took  her  place,  or  rather  was  dragged  in  by  the 
rest  and,  amid  a  chorus  of  laughter,  they  were 
all  whisked  out  of  sight  and  the  young  Indian 
was  left  standing  alone  in  the  dark  woods. 
Directly  over  the  rock,  as  he  followed  the  basket 


TOO  Cbrontclcs  of  ^Tarrgtown 


with  his  eyes,  a  large  star  was  shining,  and  he 
knew,  of  course,  that  it  must  be  their  home. 

That  night  the  young  man  turned  and  tossed 
and  could  get  no  sleep.  When  day  came  he 
discovered  that  his  appetite  had  failed,  which 
is  a  most  unusual  thing  to  happen  to  an  Indian. 
He  waited  impatiently  till  night  had  settled 
down  once  more,  and  then,  as  soon  as  the  vil- 
lage w^as  quiet,  he  sought  the  Spook  Rock. 

It  may  have  been  on  that  very  next  night, 
or  after  weeks  or  months  of  waiting, — I  do  not 
know, — the  basket  w^as  let  down  again,  and  its 
occupants,  with  many  a  titter  and  many  inno- 
cent pranks,  disembarked  and  began  to  dance  as 
before.  While  they  were  in  full  swing  there  was 
a  sudden  dash  among  them  as  a  hungry  panther 
might  drop  into  the  midst  of  a  covy  of  quail 
that  are  gossiping  together  at  bedtime.  Never 
did  birds  take  to  wing  more  quickly,  whirring 
away  from  danger,  than  the  maidens  ;  but  one 
of  them,  the  most  beautiful  of  all,  was  held  by 
the  young  hunter,  who  took  her  home,  tri- 
umphantly, to  his  empty  lodge. 

The  quail  may  be  tamed,  but  be  careful  that 
on  some  spring  morning  it  does  not  hear  the 


anO  Sleeps  fjollow 


lOI 


piping  of  its  mates.  The  star  girl  taade  a  good 
and  loving  wife,  and  when  a  baby  was  born  to 
her  she  forgot  any  longing  she  may  have  had 
for  her  old  companions.  Three  years  passed, 
and  one  night,  when  the  air  was  peculiarly 
still,  a  sound  of  distant  singing  came  to  the 
hunter's  lodge,  and  his  star  wife  grew  restless, 
and  her  eyes  burned  like  coals.  She  murmured 
in  her  sleep  and  sang  little  snatches  of  strange 
songs.    The  following  night  she  was  missing. 

The  little  babe  in  the  lodge  cried  and  refused 
such  food  as  the  hunter  had  to  give  it  and 
finally,  when  it  was  dead,  he  hollowed  a  grave 
for  it  by  the  Pocantico  and  sat  down  alone  once 
more.  After  a  while  he  took  his  bow  and  ar- 
rows and  went  hunting,  but  never  returned  and 
the  lodge  fell  to  ruin,  so  that  when  the  snow 
came  it  drifted  between  the  bare  poles.  When 
three  years  more  had  gone,  and  the  smell  of  the 
spring  was  in  the  air  again,  the  star  wife  came 
back.  A  few  hours  of  absence,  she  thought, 
and  probably  her  husband  had  not  even  missed 
her.  A  few  hours  of  pleasure — how  the  time 
had  flown  ! 

She  found  the  empty  lodge  sticks  with  as- 


102  Cbronicles  of  ^arr^town 


tonishment.  Even  the  grass  was  growing 
rank  where  she  had  lain  by  the  side  of  her 
husband  and  baby  only  a  few  hours  before. 
Something  must  be  wrong.  She  had  mistaken 
the  place  and  would  search  for  her  home. 

Up  and  down  the  Pocantico  w^oods — you  may 
meet  her  any  spring  night,  for  doubtless  she  is 
looking  there  still  for  the  lost  lodge. 

Within  the  present  generation  the  lights 
have  been  seen  moving  at  night  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Spook  Rock,  and  if  any  adven- 
turous youth  will  run  the  risk  he  may  find  the 
dancers  still  tripping  and  singing  on  spring 
nights. 

andre:'s  ghost 

When  Major  Andre  had  been  safely  disposed 
of  at  Tappan,  and  the  American  arms  had  re- 
covered from  the  shock  of  Arnold's  treachery, 
that  incident  was  thought  to  be  concluded. 
After  Yorktown,  men  turned  from  their  swords 
to  their  plowshares  again  and  gave  their  atten- 
tion to  the  arts  of  peace.    Before  quiet  had 


THE  POCANTICO  RIVER 


anD  SleepB  t>ollow 


103 


fairly  settled  upon  the  neutral  territory  it  be- 
gan to  be  whispered  that  a  war  reminiscence 
of  an  alarming  character  insisted  upon  recogni- 
tion. Down  the  post  road,  on  still  autumn 
nights,  belated  wayfarers  sometimes  heard  the 
sound  of  hoofs.  A  madly  galloping  horse 
seemed  to  approach,  but  no  horse  or  horseman 
was  visible  to  the  keenest  eyes.  A  few  re- 
ported that  they  had  seen  a  formless  gray 
shadow  w^hisk  by  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
swamp  that  lay  by  the  side  of  the  highway,  and 
others  declared  that  the  word  "  halt  "  had  been 
pronounced  in  a  soldierly  tone  just  before  the 
galloping  ceased.  All  agreed  that  the  hoof- 
beats  stopped  as  though  the  rider  had  reined 
in  suddenly,  and  that  they  were  never  heard 
further  south  than  the  immense  old  tulip  tree, 
known  as  Andre's  tree,  that  spread  its  gaunt, 
ghost-like  arms  in  the  moonlight. 

This  more  than  usually  unsubstantial  ghost 
is  pertinacious  in  his  appearing,  having  been 
heard  several  times  within  the  present  decade, 
as  the  writer,  among  other  witnesses,  can 
testify. 

About  Andre's  tree,  another  tale  may  be  told. 


104  Cbrontclcs  of  (Tarrstovvtt 

This  conspicuous  landmark  gained  its  name,  as 
everybody  knew,  from  the  fact  that  the  cap- 
ture of  the  British  spy  was  accomphshed 
directly  beneath  it.  Long  after  the  war  it 
stood,  a  reminder  not  only  of  the  heroism  of 
Paulding,  Williams,  and  Van  Wart,  but  of  the 
treachery  of  Arnold,  whose  execrated  name 
was  coupled  with  that  of  Judas.  The  traitor, 
hidden  in  England,  lived  for  many  years  ;  but 
w^hen  at  last  the  end  came,  and  the  news  of 
his  death  had  travelled  slowly  to  Tarrytown,  a 
strange,  dramatic  scene  occurred.  While  men 
met  at  the  crossroads  or  the  tavern  and'  told 
each  other  with  stern  satisfaction  that  Arnold 
was  dead,  and  decrepit  veterans  on  the  store 
' '  stoep ' '  became  animated  once  more,  recall- 
ing old  days ;  while  the  more  youthful  mem- 
bers of  the  community  w^ere  for  gaining  the 
dominie's  consent  to  having  the  old  church 
bell  rung,  the  sky  clouded  and  a  storm  burst 
over  the  village.  In  the  midst  of  it  a  terrific 
discharge  of  lightning,  accompanied  by  a  peal 
of  thunder  that  shook  the  houses,  startled  the 
villagers. 

After  the  storm  had  cleared  away,  a  wonder 


an5  Sleeps  "fcollow  105 


came  to  light  that  surprised  even  the  most 
rational.  Andre's  tree,  the  giant  tulip  tree 
under  which  Arnold's  schemes  had  been  frus- 
trated, was  riven  and  splintered  by  the  light- 
ning, 

cuffy's  prophkcy 

When  the  old  church  was  a-building,  say 
the  gossips,  Vredr3^k  Flypse  bethought  him 
that  he  would  interrupt  that  pious  labor,  to  the 
end  that  the  dam  of  his  new  mill  might  be  in 
readiness  for  the  harv^est.  It  was,  so  to  speak 
and  in  a  way,  meat  before  grace  that  he  con- 
templated. But  as  soon  as  the  dam  was  com- 
pleted a  storm  came  and  washed  it  away  ;  so 
that  the  Lord  of  the  Manor  waxed  impatient 
and  swore  incontinently.  Thrice  did  this  thing 
transpire  after  the  manner  that  we  have  already 
related,  and  to  this  day  it  might  have  continued 
to  happen — Flypse  being  a  firm  man  and  stead- 
fast of  his  head,  which  some  call  obstinate — 
had  not  one  of  his  slaves.  Cuff}',  dreamed  a 
dream,  to  the  effect  that  the  destruction  of  the 
dam  was  due  to  the  abeyance  of  the  work  upon 
the  church.    With  that  Flypse  finished  the 


io6  Cbroniclee  of  tlarrgtown 


church  and  had  no  further  trouble  with  the 
dam. 

THE  FI.YING  DUTCHMAN 

Hendrick  Hudson — may  his  glory  never 
grow  less — has  been  a  veritable  Man-in-the- 
Moon — albeit  only  a  Half  Moon" — to  the 
dwellers  on  the  banks  of  the  river  that  per- 
petuates his  name.  Some  say  that  he  still  tacks 
across  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Tappan  Zee 
from  Dobbs-his-Ferr}^  to  Point-no-Point,  though 
whether  he  is  thus  rewarded  with  beneficent 
powers  with  an  endless  career  of  discovery,  or 
condemned  for  some  unstoried  deed  to  per- 
petual labor,  is  a  disputed  point.  It  is  even 
stoutly  maintained — or  was  some  years  ago, 
when  people  thought  it  worth  while  to  cock 
their  beliefs  saucily — that  the  Flying  Dutch- 
man is  not  Hendrick  at  all,  but  a  pirate  or 
smuggler  of  a  later  day. 

At  the  risk  of  being  thought  an  indifferent 
antiquary  I  must  tell  what  I  know  about  this 
ghostly  vessel,  which  to  my  eyes  appeared  alto- 
gether too  modern  a  craft  to  have  been  the 
Half  Moon, 


anD  Sleeps  IboUow 


107 


Late  on  a  moonlight  evening,  several  years 
ago,  as  two  friends  sat  on  the  rocks  by 
Kingsland's  round-tower,  at  the  old  quarry, 
and  looked  down  upon  the  river,  their  atten- 
tion was  attracted  to  a  schooner  that  moved 
swiftly  and  silently  past  the  point.  She  was 
coming  up  the  stream  and  towards  the  shore 
upon  the  port  tack.  In  the  bright  moonlight 
that  illuminated  her  sails,  they  seemed  to  stand 
out  distinct  from  the  gray  of  the  river.  While 
the  friends  w^ere  looking  at  this  inviting  craft, 
she  disappeared — vanished  as  completely  as 
though  she  had  been  engulfed  in  the  Tappan 
Zee,  leaving  not  a  single  spar  to  mark  the  place 
where  she  went  down.  But  no  ship  since  the 
world  began  ever  sank  as  quickly  as  that 
schooner  faded  from  sight.  The  spectators 
rubbed  their  eyes  and  marvelled,  but  the  night 
kept  its  secret  for  full  twenty  minutes  w4ien — 
presto  ! — there  she  was  again,  as  fresh  as  a 
duck  that  dives  and  comes  up  uninjured  from 
its  bath.  Now  the  vessel  was  on  the  starboard 
tack  and  standing  away  from  the  east  shore. 
Three  times  or  more  the  prank  was  played,  and 
the  friends  wondered. 


io8  CbronlclcB  of  Carrgtown 

Was  it  the  Flying  DiUcluyian  ?  I,  who  saw 
this,  am  willing  enough  to  agree  with  you  that 
it  was  ;  but  my  friend,  who  is  scientific,  ofifered 
so  plausible  and  rational  an  explanation  that  I 
would  repeat  it  here  if  I  was  not  sure  that  it 
would  wreck  3^our  faith  as  it  did  mine. 

HUI.DA,  THE  WITCH 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  cottage  of 
Hulda,  which  was  not  far  from  the  Spook 
Rock.  To-day  nothing  is  left  of  that  humble 
habitation  but  a  few  stones  in  the  side  of  an 
alder-covered  bank,  and  the  trace  of  a  path 
leading  to  a  walled  spring.  But  in  the  days 
of  our  nation's  birth- throes  he  was  a  brave  man 
who  passed  the  cottage  of  the  witch,  even  in 
the  daytime.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  people 
took  witches  seriously. 

Hulda  was  a  Bohemian  woman,  who  came 
without  references  or  kin  and  settled  in  the 
midst  of  conservative  folks  who  were  familiar 
with  each  other's  grandparents.  To  be  a 
stranger  was  to  be  open  to  suspicion  ;  to  be 
alone  was  not  respectable.  Acting  upon  a 
well-known  principle,  recognized  in  most  rural 


anb  Sleeps  "Ibollow 


log 


communities,  the  newcomer  is  held  to  be  guilty 
till  he  has  proved  himself  to  be  innocent. 

Hulda  gathered  herbs,  * '  simples, ' '  in  the 
mill  woods  ;  she  knew  where  the  boneset  grew, 
and  vervain,  and  mandrake,  and  calamus.  Her 
cabin  was  full  of  tUe  sweet  odor  of  plants  a- 
drying  ;  specifics  for  colds  and  fevers  and  the 
unsophisticated  pains  and  aches  of  simple  folk. 
She  wove  baskets,  too,  and  w^as  wise,  as  a 
woman  ought  not  to  be.  Rumor,  as  busy  in 
Sleepy  Hollow  in  1770  as  she  is  in  1897,  said 
that  the  witch  had  commerce  with  the  Indians 
who  came  occasionally  into  this  region  from  far 
up  the  State,  and  exchanged  with,  them  secrets 
of  black  art  and  ' '  j^arbs. ' ' 

A  tapu,  as  eflfectual  as  ever  existed  in  the 
South  Sea  islands,  cut  this  woman  off  from 
human  intercourse,  and  when  the  war  came 
she,  alone,  had  no  friend  to  discuss  her  hopes  or 
tell  her  fears  to.  From  first  to  last  the  neutral 
ground  got  the  worst  of  the  Revolution. 
Friends  and  foes  struggled  across  it  and  fought 
or  fled  back  again.  Every  crime  in  the  calen- 
dar was  committed  in  the  names  of  King  and 
Congress  alike,  till  the  harried  remnant  of  the 


no  CbroiUclcs  of  ^arrgtown 


people  sat  among  their  denuded  fields  and  de- 
pleted barns,  and  faced  starv^ation  and  sickness 
with  such  stoicism  as  they  could  muster. 
Sometimes  an  undetected  hand  left  dainties 
that  were  hard  to  procure,  on  the  door-step  or 
the  window-sill  of  some  house  where  want  and 
pain  had  settled  together  ;  but  the  donor  was 
invisible. 

In  those  days  men  patrolled  the  highways  to 
intercept  the  cattle-thieves  that  ran  ofif  their 
stock,  and  as  the  population  became  smaller, 
the  women  sometimes  took  their  places  with 
flint-lock  and  powder-horn.  Hulda,  the  witch, 
presented  herself  for  this  service,  but  no  one 
wanted  her  companionship.  At  last  one  da}^  a 
force  of  British  landed  from  one  of  the  trans- 
ports that  had  sailed  up  the  Hudson  and  com- 
menced a  march  which  was  to  bring  them,  by 
means  of  the  King's  highway,  to  the  rear  of 
Putnam's  position,  at  Peekskill.  As  they 
marched  in  imposing  array  a  volley  greeted 
them  from  behind  walls  and  tree-trunks.  It 
was  lycxington  repeated  in  Westchester  County. 
Not  to  be  repulsed  this  time,  Hulda  fought 
with  her  neighbors,  using  her  rifle  with  great 


III 


effect,  so  that  she  was  singled  out  for  ven- 
geance ;  and  before  the  redcoats  retreated  to 
their  boats  they  had,  by  means  of  a  sortie, 
overtaken  and  killed  the  witch. 

Animated  by  a  new  respect,  those  who  had 
seen  her  fight  avowed  that,  witch  or  no  witch, 
she  had  earned  a  right  to  Christian  burial. 
Reverently  they  carried  her  to  her  cabin,  and 
while  there  discovered  between  the  leaves  of 
her  Bible  (?)  a  paper  informing  them  of  a  little 
store  of  gold  that  she  desired  to  have  dis- 
tributed among  the  widows  whose  husbands 
had  fallen  for  their  country. 

Hulda's  grave,  it  is  said,  is  close  by  the 
north  wall  of  the  old  church,  as  though  her 
neighbors,  having  done  her  what  despite  they 
could  during  her  lifetime,  were  desirous  to 
atone  after  her  death  by  an  exhibition  of  hearty 
respect. 

RAVKN  ROCK 

Nowhere  in  this  part  of  the  country  are  the 
ravens  to  be  found,  though  it  is  thought  that 
they  may  have  been  plentiful  a  century  or 
more  ago.    The  crows,  who  are  known  to  be 


112  Cbroiuclce  of  ^arrgtown 


inveterate  neighbors  of  their  larger  cousins, 
perhaps  drove  them  out.  Upon  their  exodus 
these  birds  of  ill-omen  left  their  names  in  more 
than  one  lonely  spot,  to  couple  with  dark  asso- 
ciations. 

Raven  Rock  is  a  detached  portion  of  the 
steep,  rocky,  eastern  side  of  Buttermilk  Hill, 
which  a  deep  fissure  has  long  separated  from 
the  mass,  and  the  fragment,  becoming  inde- 
pendent territory,  set  up  a  mythology  of  its 
own.  Not  content  with  one  legend,  it  has  two, 
at  least,  to  boast. 

A  woman,  so  we  have  read,  wandered  out  of 
the  path  in  a  blinding  snowstorm  and  sought 
shelter  from  the  blast  of  the  wind  in  the  ravine 
behind  Raven  Rock.  The  snow  drifted  in 
upon  her  and  she  went  to  sleep  never  to  waken 
again.  Ever  since,  that  cleft  has  been  a  melan- 
choly place  of  refuge,  for  it  is  said  that  the 
spirit  of  the  poor  wayfarer  meets  the  belated 
wanderer  with  cries  that  sound  like  the  scream- 
ing of  the  wind,  and  gestures  that  remind  one 
of  the  sweep  of  snowdrifts,  warning  others 
away  from  the  spot  that  she  found  so  fatal. 
There  are,  in  all  the  land,  many  legends  of 


mt>  Sleeps  Ibollov^ 


113 


many  ghosts,  but  none  I  think  of  so  kindly  and 
Christian  a  complexion  as  this  poor  spectre  of 
Raven  Rock. 

But  the  wraith  of  the  white  woman  is  not  the 
only  one  that  the  rock  boasts.  An  Indian  girl, 
who  perished  of  a  jealous  lover,  has  an  older 
claim  ;  and  the  ravens  used  to  tell  of  still  a 
third,  a  Colonial  Dame,  who  fled  from  the 
dreadful  attentions  of  a  too  amorous  Tory 
raider  in  the  dark  days  of*  The  Old  War." 

Nebulous  legends  they  are,  every  one,  and 
in  these  hard  days  of  unbelief  there  are  people 
who,  not  knowing  the  stories  in  detail,  have 
even  expressed  a  doubt  concerning  the  ghosts 
themselves. 

THE  WOMAN  OF  THE  CI.IFF 

It  is  no  discredit  to  a  ghost  or  a  ghost-story, 
but  rather  in  the  nature  of  them  both,  to  be 
evanescent.  No  apology  need  be  ofifered  there- 
fore for  the  Woman  of  the  Cliff,  who  flits  along 
the  top  of  the  rocks  on  a  certain  ledge  that 
overlooks  the  village.  When  a  storm  is  rising 
she  is  sometimes  seen  hurrying  among  the  tree- 
trunks  and  over  the  moss,  and  her  voice  rises 


114  Cbrontclea  of  ^arrgtown 


with  the  wind,  which  it  resembles  not  a  Httle. 
Whatever  the  tragic  story  of  this  poor  ghost, 
she  has  not  yet  found  an  opportunity  to  tell  it 
to  any  one. 

kidd's  rock 

This  has  long  been  the  name  of  a  rock  that 
is  a  part  of  the  river-wall  on  the  outer  side  of 
Kingsland's  point.  There  is  a  summer-house 
built  over  the  rock  and  if  there  were  ever  gold- 
en riches  beneath  it,  or  if  there  are  treasures 
hidden  there  still,  it  is  not  (fortunately)  the 
duty  of  a  sober  historian  to  tell.  When  it  is 
remembered  that  the  first  Vredryk  Flypse  and 
his  confreres  were  charged  with  being  the 
partners  in  Kidd's  nefarious  trade,  and  that 
the  rock  was  at  the  very  entrance  to  the  bay 
upon  the  upper  end  of  which  stood  the  castle 
and  port  of  Sir  Vredryk,  it  does  not  seem  at  all 
impossible  that  the  pirate  may  have  found  a 
convenient  trysting-place  at  the  rock. 

THE  HKADI<KSS  HESSIAN 

The  "Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow  "  belongs  to 
Washington  Irvdng,  and  it  is  an  enchanted 


fruit  that  crumbles  into  ashes  if  any  one  touches 
it  but  the  magician  who  fashioned  it.  But  the 
Headless  Hessian  belongs  to  the  neighborhood, 
and  Brom  Bones  is  well  remembered  still. 

About  twenty  5'ears  ago  the  writer  was  pass- 
ing, one  morning,  through  the  little  lane  that 
borders  the  Pocantico,  between  Broadway  and 
the  site  of  the  burned  factory  (Brombacher's), 
when  he  overheard  an  Irishw^oman,  who  stood 
by  her  cottage  gate,  relate  this  marvellous  tale 
to  her  neighbors  : 

"  It  was  n't  late,  mebby  not  mower  than  tin 
o'clock,  an'  me  waitin'  here  be  the  gate  for 
Dinny  to  come  in  an'  he  only  shteppin'  up  to 
Johnny  Manin's  wid  de  can,  when  upon  me 
sowl,  thrue  as  I 'm  standin'  here,  I  see  right 
out  there  in  the  road  a  big,  black,  shadder-like, 
widout  any  head,  an'  him  on  horseback  at 
that." 

There  was  no  doubting  the  sincerity  of  the 
tones.  I  looked  at  the  ghost-seer.  Honesty 
and  ignorance  shared  the  realm  between  them. 
Had  she  possibly  had  her  imagination  fired  by 
reading  Irving  ?  It  was  easier  to  believe  that 
she  had  actually  seen  the  Headless  Hessian. 


ii6  Cbronicles  ot  Carrgtown 

Allow  the  possibility  of  the  apparition,  and  I 
will  show  you  why  the  place  where  the  woman 
thought  she  had  seen  him  was  most  appropri- 
ate. A  few  rods  up  the  stream  the  ford  and 
abutments  still  show  where  the  ancient  bridge 
stood,  before  the  course  of  the  post-road  was 
changed  :  a  few  rods  down  one  finds  the  pres- 
ent bridge.  What  more  natural  than  that  a 
poor,  headless  spook  should  wander  irresolute 
between  the  old  site  and  the  new  ? 

That  some  untoward  influence  occasionally 
manifests  itself  at  the  new  bridge  is  not  un- 
known. A  few  years  ago  a  sober  and  careful 
citizen  from  the  lane,  returning  from  the  dis- 
tant saloon  w^th  a  pitcher  of  beer  which  he  was 
expecting  to  drink  in  the  bosom  of  his  family, 
was  dragged  upon  the  bridge  by  invisible  hands, 
though  it  was  clear  moonlight,  and  flung  over 
the  high  parapet  into  the  water  of  the  Pocan- 
tico,  where  he  swam  for  some  time,  being 
miraculously  unable  to  find  the  shore,  and  was 
at  last  rescued  by  his  neighbors.  Another, 
who  had  been  in  the  clutches  of  the  same  un- 
canny wrestler,  succeeded  in  escaping  without 
a  ducking. 


an&  Sleeps  "Ibollovv 


117 


Brom  Bones,  who  figures  in  the  courtship  of 
*  *  Sleepy  Hollow ' '  as  the  practical  joker  who  im- 
personated the  Headless  Horseman,  was  in  Mr. 
William  See's  store,  with  a  lot  of  other  ancient 
cronies,  when  the  first  copy  of  the  immortal  I^e- 
gend  reached  Tarrytown.  No  longer  ' '  Brom, 
the  devil,"  butolduncleAbr'm  Van  Tassel,  the 
patriarch  listened  in  great  wrath  when  someone 
told  him  that  Washington  Irving  had  put  him 
in  a  book.  Grasping  his  ponderous  stick,  he 
started  for  the  door. 

"  Hole  on.  Uncle  Brom  !  where  you  goin'  so 
fast ' '  ?  they  cried. 

"  Goin'  to  lick  that  writin'  feller  till  he  can't 
see!  "  roared  the  newly  immortalized. 

JACOB  THE  ROMAN 

The  stor>^  of  ' '  Jacob  the  Roman ' '  belongs  by 
courtesy,  if  not  by  copyright,  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
John  Knox  Allen,  who  received  it  from  the 
late  Mrs.  Eliza  Ann  See,  and  told  it  first  in 
a  historical  address,  which  was  afterwards  pub- 
lished by  the  Tarrytown  Historical  Society. 
We  give  it  in  his  own  words  : 

"Just  at  the  foot  of  the  high  point  called 


ii8  Cbronicles  of  ^Tarr^town 


Kyk-uit,^  there  long  ago  dwelt  a  man  who  w^as 
called  Jacob  the  Roma?i.  He  was  a  Gennan  by 
birth,  and  in  the  centuries  past  his  ancestors 
had  come,  perhaps  w4th  Julius  Caesar,  from 
Rome,  and  after  the  conclusion  of  the  war  with 
the  Gauls  had  settled  among  the  now  friendly 
lVar-7?ie?i,  whom  w^e  to-day  call  German. 
Living  in  the  highlands  of  Southern  Germany 
the  old  name  still  clung  to  them.  '  Jacob  the 
Roman  '  was  well  educated,  but  he  was  poor. 
He  was  respected  in  his  native  town,  and  had 
w^on  the  affection  of  the  Herr  Obermeister's 
lovely  daughter — her  name  Judah  Trenagh. 
But  poverty  hindered  the  progress  of  his  suit, 
and  he  determined  to  try  his  fortunes  in  this 
New  World.  Judah  w^ould  not  be  left  be- 
hind. By  night  they  left  the  town,  and  trav- 
elling by  unfrequented  paths  at  last  reached 
the  coast.  But  now^  their  money  was  ex- 
hausted.   Nothing  daunted,  they  secured  their 

*  "Lookout,"  now  pronounced  Kakeont ;  a  name 
given  to  a  sharply-defined  hill  rising  about  five  hun- 
dred feet  above  tide  water,  and  situated  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  due  east  from  the  Hudson  River.  It  was 
once  a  coast  survey  station,  and  was  used  in  early 
times  by  the  Indians  as  a  signal-hill. 


mb  Sleeps  Dollow  119 


passage  across  the  ocean  by  articles  of  agree- 
ment with  the  captain  of  a  vessel,  which 
articles  allowed  him  to  sell  the  two  for  a  term 
of  years  to  whoever  in  this  land  would  pay  the 
price  of  their  passage,  and  secure  it  from  the 
proceeds  of  their  labor.  This  was  no  unusual 
thing  in  that  day.  Those  thus  sold  were  called 
Rcdemptioners ,  because  the  price  of  their  re- 
demption from  bondage  was  fixed  at  so  much 
labor,  or  its  equivalent  in  money.  A  calamity 
not  anticipated  befell  them  on  arrival — they 
were  sold  away  from  each  other.  Exchanging 
vows  of  eternal  fidelity,  they  parted. 

' '  In  time  Jacob  worked  his  freedom,  and  on 
the  east  side  of  Kyk-uit  near  a  little  brook 
bought  a  little  homestead  and  built  for  himself 
a  house.  He  had  learned  to  speak  the  Low 
Dutch  of  the  people,  and  as  he  was  a  tailor  by 
trade  they  came  to  him  to  make  their  garments, 
and  came  to  listen  to  his  many  stories  of  life  in 
the  Old  World.  He  was  respected  by  all  ;  he 
increased  in  goods,  but  was  not  happy.  It  was 
years  since  he  had  seen  Judah.  Where  was 
she  ?  Was  she  living  ?  How  should  he  ever 
find  her  ?    His  former  master  told  him  he  had 


I20  Cbronicles  of  Q:arrstown 


heard  she  had  been  sold  somewhere  west  of 
the  river.  His  love  stimulated  his  wits. 
Anthony  Segere  was  der  Post-reiter,  and  made 
his  monthly  circuit  with  the  colonial  mail  from 
New  Amsterdam  to  Fort  Orange,  going  up  the 
west  vside  of  the  river  and  down  the  east.  Jacob 
confided  in  him,  and  the  postman  espoused  his 
cause  with  sympathy,  and  promised  to  inquire 
in  every  village  for  '  one  Trenagh,'  according 
to  the  description  Jacob  gave  him  ;  and  if  he 
found  her,  and  she  were  willing,  he  promised  to 
bring  her  back  with  him  on  his  horse.  For  this 
service  Jacob  was  to  give  him  seven  dollars  in 
New  York  currenc3^  Jacob  sliow^ed  him  the 
money,  and  laid  it  away  against  the  demand. 
The  postman  went  and  made  inquir\',  return- 
ing month  after  month  on  his  steady  old  horse, 
and  brought  no  new^s.  Jacob's  heart  sank 
within  him,  just  as  do  the  hearts  of  people  in 
more  splendid  romances. 

''At  last  the  old  postman  met  a  man  wiio 
thought  he  knew  a  woman  who  answered  the 
description.  He  would  see  her,  and  if  she 
were  the  one  w^ould  bring  her  to  Fort  Orange 
against  the  time  of  the  next  circuit.    Jacob  was 


anD  Sleeps  IboUow 


121 


wild  with  excitement.  Was  this  the  woman 
or  not  ?  What  joy  or  sorrow  would  the  post- 
man bring  him  next  month  ?  The  month 
rolled  round.  The  slow  steed  came  ambling 
down  the  river-roads  and  up  the  hills  and  bore 
Anthony  and  his  saddle-bags,  and  on  the 
pillion  w^as  seated  Judah  too.  Any  good  novel 
will  tell  you  what  they  did  when  they  met. 

' '  One  incident  is  to  be  added.  Judah  often 
told  how  she  attracted  the  attention  of  whole 
villages  on  the  first  day's  ride  on  horseback 
from  Fort  Orange.  She  wondered  why  the 
people  stared  and  smiled  as  they  saw  her,  for 
she  was  a  comely  woman  and  decently  dressed. 
She  asked  the  old  postman  why  they  were 
amused.  He  smiled.  She  was  not  an  eques- 
trian, and  in  her  innocence  supposed  it  w^as  not 
possible  to  ride  a  horse  safely  except  astride. 
And  she  had  not  liked  to  embrace  the  old  man, 
and  so  had  mounted  looking  the  other  way. 
It  was  hardly  to  be  wondered  at,  that  the  peo- 
ple smiled  as  they  saw  her  clinging  to  the  sad- 
dle-bags, and  with  her  face  turned  toward  the 
scenes  they  were  fast,  or  rather  slowly,  leaving. 
This  story  she  herself  told  to  Mrs.  See.  The 


122  Cbroniclea  ot  ^arri^town 

old  postman  showed  her  how  to  ride  upon  the 
pillion,  and  their  journey  ceased  to  attract 
especial  attention.  There  was,  of  course,  love 
in  a  cottage,  though  the  furniture  at  first  was 
little,  one  old  chest,  containing  crockery  and 
utensils,  serving  also  as  tailor's  bench  and 
table.  Eight  children  were  born  to  them, 
whose  descendants  are  said  to  be  with  us  to 
this  day.  These  two  were  members  in  good 
and  regular  standing  of  the  old  church,  and 
Mrs.  See  especially  emphasized  their  piety. 
In  his  old  age  the  good  Jacob  said  one  day  : 
*  I  prays  mine  Cott,  I  never  knows  a  sick  ped.' 
That  very  evening  as  his  wife  approached  to 
help  him  to  bed,  he  met  her  with  the  old  look 
of  love,  stretched  out  his  hands  to  her,  tried  to 
speak,  and  was  gone." 

THE  CHARTER  OAK 

As  late  as  the  Civil  War  there  was  standing 
upon  the  bluff  which  overlooks  the  old  mill 
from  the  south,  a  mammoth  oak-tree,  whose 
story,  according  to  the  old  people,  had  to  do 
with  the  signing  of  a  charter  or  some  other  im- 
portant paper  beneath  its  shade.    Some  said 


anD  Sleeps  IboUow  123 


that  the  deed  of  the  old  church  was  executed 
there,  others  that  Flypse  concluded  his  pur- 
chase of  the  Pocantico  from  the  Indians  on  this 
spot ;  and  again  it  was  stated  that  the  important 
affair  occurred  at  a  later  day  and  was  connected 
with  Washington.  The  story,  whatever  it  was, 
had  been  forgotten,  and  all  that  remained  was 
a  fixed  recollection  that  there  had  been  a  legend 
of  some  kind  connected  with  the  old  tree. 

Some  time  in  the  sixties  I  think  it  was,  that 
this  noble  relic  of  the  forest  primeval  fell  a 
victim  to  the  village  vandals.  It  had  escaped 
their  notice  by  some  happy  chance  for  many 
years,  but  at  last  its  day  of  doom  came  and  the 
axe  destroyed  in  a  few  hours,  what  the  forces 
of  nature  had  been  centuries  in  bringing  to 
perfection. 

THE  KYK-UIT  VOYAGER 

"  I  '11  do  it,  if  it  takes  me  a  month  of  Sun- 
days ;  "  said  Rambout  Van  Dam,  adding  by 
way  of  confirmation  a  reference  to  the  old 
gentleman  who  had  better  be  nameless.  Van 
Dam  had  attended  a  merrymaking  at  Kyk-uit, 
and  being  in  a  pot-valiant  mood  he  swore 


124  Cbronlcles  ot  ^arrgtown 


roundly  that  he  would  reach  the  Palisades  in 
his  boat  before  the  dawn  of  the  Sabbath, 
though  Saturday  night  was  far  spent  when  the 
vow  was  registered. 

'  *  You  '  11  never, ' '  said  his  friends. 
I  will,"  quoth  Rambout. 
Better  make  a  night  of  it  here  !  '* 
Not  if  I  row  from  now  till  doomsday." 

Rambout  found  his  boat  where  he  had  left  it, 
rocking  quietly  in  the  bay  by  the  old  mill. 
Embarking,  bravely  he  set  out  for  his  destina- 
tion at  a  rate  of  speed  that  bid  fair  to  fulfill  his 
promise  and  land  him  at  the  foot  of  the  Pali- 
sades an  hour  before  sunrise. 

But  w^hen  Sunday  morning  came  Rambout 
did  not  appear  in  his  accustomed  place,  and  his 
neighbors  shook  their  heads  seriously,  having 
their  own  opinion  of  the  morality  and  sobriety 
of  Tarry  town.  A  week  passed,  and  another 
Sabbath  did  not  restore  Van  Dam.  Then  in- 
quiries w^ere  made  and  finally  the  fact  was 
accepted  that  the  bold  little  navigator  was  lost. 

As  time  passed,  a  new  sensation  disturbed 
the  people  who  lived  near  the  river  bank. 
Skippers  plying  from  point  to  point  along  the 


ant)  SleepB  fJoUow  125 


Tappan  Zee  had  a  strange  story  to  tell.  They 
had  heard  the  sound  of  rapid  oars  on  still 
nights  and  had  been  hailed  by  an  invisible 
boatman.  A  new  ghost  was  on  his  rounds. 
How  long  the  Dutchman  is  doomed  to  pull  his 
weary  oar  it  is  impossible  to  guess  ;  but  if  there 
is  a  limit  in  time  or  distance,  it  seems  as  though 
he  must  soon  reach  it  after  a  century  and  a 
half  of  labor. 


VII 


OI,D  SITES  AND  HIGHWAYS 

N  octogenarian,  writing  his  eariy  reminis- 


/~\  cences  of  Tarrytown  for  the  Pocantico 
Gazette  (1846)  says  :  "  When  I  was  j^oung  an 
old  man  pointed  out  a  maple  stump  as  the  re- 
mains of  the  tree  that  was  used  by  Capt.  Daniel 
Martlings  to  fasten  his  market  boat  to.  Before 
the  Revolutionary  war  there  was  a  dock  run  out 
in  the  cove  opposite  the  maple  tree,  and  Captain 
Martlings  built  his  dwelling-house  on  the  shore, 
while  one  Abram  Fogal,  another  boatman, 
built  a  house  on  the  lot  where  Jacob  Requa's 
house  stands,  which  was  occupied  by  George 
Munson  for  a  tavern.  The  next  house  was 
built  for  a  dwelling  and  store  on  the  site  of  the 
one  lately  belonging  to  Jacob  Onderdonk,  and 
William  Paulding  erected  the  one  now  occupied 


Cbronicice  of  ^Tarr^town  127 


by  General  Paulding,  where  he  also  set  up  a 
store.  The  settlement  was  hitherto  confined  to 
the  water's  edge,  but  now  one  Edward  Couen- 
hoven  erected  a  building  for  a  store  and  tavern 
on  the  site  since  in  possession  of  Martin  Smith, 
and  Abram  Martlings  put  up  that  occupied  by 
the  late  Widow  Child.  The  splendid  residence 
of  N.  Bayles  was  then  the  site  of  a  small  house 
belonging  to  one  Dykman.  Besides  these,  a 
house  built  by  George  Comb  on  the  ground  now 
owned  by  Thos.  Dean  (on  the  southwest  corner 
of  Main  Street  and  Broadway),  a  little  house 
near  by  and  two  down  on  the  shore,  one  of 
which  was  built  where  John  Leonard  lives,  by 
Isaac  Martlings,  comprised  all  the  village  pre- 
vious to  the  Revolutionary  war.  No,  there  was 
another,  built  and  occupied  by  Abram  Fogal, 
which  made  twelve  at  the  time  that  the  war 
broke  out." 

The  octogenarian,  whose  account  we  will 
quote  further,  did  not  mention  the  Van  Tassel 
(old  Mott)  house,  nor  several  others  which  lay 
at  a  greater  distance,  notably  the  Davids  home- 
stead. Sunny  Side,  the  Manor  house,  and  the 
Reed,  or  Landrine  house — to  which  Major 


128  Cbronlclcs  of  tTarr^town 


Andre  was  taken  after  his  capture.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  aged  writer  confined  his  effort  of 
memory  to  the  west  side  of  the  turnpike  road — 
that  is  to  say,  Broadway. 

Mr.  Bolton,  in  his  History  of  Westchester 
County,  seems  to  have  followed  this  account 
blindly  and  without  reflection,  as  he  did  the 
genealogical  tables  of  the  Filipse  family  and 
other  data,  without  taking  the  trouble  to  verif}^, 
or  even  to  reflect ;  for  he  gives  twelve  houses 
as  the  total  in  Tarrytown  up  to  the  time  of  the 
war. 

From  other  sources  the  following  accounts 
seem  to  agree  : 

The  old  Pauldhig  House  was  near  the  termi- 
nus of  Dock  Street,  which  is  the  left-hand  fork 
of  lower  Main  Street.  It  stood  on  the  edge  of 
a  pleasant  ba}^  which  used  to  indent  the  shore 
to  the  south  of  the  present  depot.  William 
Paulding,  who  built  it,  was  the  father  of  Gen- 
eral Paulding,  who  afterwards  built  where 
Miss  Helen  Gould's  place  now  is.  James 
Kirke  Paulding,  the  friend  of  Ir\dng,  who  was 
joint  author  with  him  of  the  Salmaguyidi 
Papers y  was  a  brother  of  William.    He  spent 


anD  Sleeps  Dollow 


129 


much  of  his  boyhood  at  this  old  house.  General 
William  Paulding  was  a  member  of  the  New 
York  State  Constitutional  Convention  in  1821, 
and  Mayor  of  New  York  City,  with  an  inter- 
mission of  one  year,  from  1824  to  1829.  Philip 
R.  Paulding,  son  of  the  preceding,  sold  the 
present  Gould  place  to  George  Merritt. 

The  Martlings  House. — Abram  Martlings, 
the  hero  of  many  an  adventure  in  the  troublous 
days  of  the  Revolution,  lived  on  the  knoll 
which  has  been  known  in  later  days  as  the 
CliflF  house  property.  The  Fowlers,  w^ho 
owned  it  several  years  ago,  improved  the 
house  and  grounds  greatly.  This  is  the  place 
that  occupies  the  inner  side  of  the  curve  of 
Main  Street  on  the  steep  block  between  the 
old  postoflSce  and  the  bank. 

Captain  Daniel  Martlhigs'  is  still  standing. 
It  is  on  the  corner  of  Dock  and  Water  Streets, 
north  of  where  the  Paulding  house  used  to 
stand.  This  Captain  Daniel  w^as  the  boatman 
who  used  to  fasten  his  market  boat  to  a  tree 
on  the  shore. 

The  Onderdonk  house  and  Captain   VogeV s 

were  near  the  corner  of  Dock  and  Water 
9 


I30  Cbronicles  ot  ^arr^town 


Streets.  The  Captain  Vogel  mentioned  here 
is  evidently  the  same  that  ' '  an  Octogenarian  ' ' 
speaks  of  as  one  ' '  Abram  Fogal,  another  boat- 
man." 

William  Couenhoven'' s  house  stood  on  the 
corner  of  Main  Street  and  Broadway,  where 
the  drugstore  of  Russell  and  I^aurie  now  is. 
For  many  years  this  site  was  known  as  the 
Martin  Smith  tavern  and  every  notable  man 
who  travelled  from  New  York  to  Albany  in 
the  old  stage-coach  days,  has  probably  made  a 
stop  at  what  was,  in  its  time,  quite  ?  famous 
hostelry. 

"  Tommy''  Deaji' s  was  opposite.  Not  a  few 
of  the  older  residents  of  Tarrytown  remember 
Thomas  Dean,  and  the  store  that  he  kept,  w^here 
the  farmers  for  six  miles  around  used  to  do  all 
their  trading  thirtj^-five  or  forty  years  ago. 
The  wagons,  in  long  procession,  got  as  near  his 
door  as  they  could  on  market  days,  and  the 
store  became  an  important  produce  exchange 
for  men  who  never  dreamed  of  shipping  direct 
to  New  York  for  themselves.  The  old  house 
was  built  by  George  Comb.  Thomas  Dean 
was  the  son  of  John  Dean,  w^ho  was  one  of  the 


mb  Sleeps  "IboUow  131 


four  men  left  at  the  Davis  farm  when  Paulding 
and  his  party  separated  on  the  day  of  Andre's 
capture.  He  was  also  the  hero  of  the  skirmish 
elsewhere  cited,  which  took  place  on  this  very 
corner.  His  grandson  is  Professor  Dean,  of 
Columbia  College.  Just  below  the  Thomas 
Dean  house  was  the  Sniffiyi  house.  The  west 
half  of  the  Bayles  house,  between  the  present 
postoffice  and  the  Cliff  (Martlings)  house,  was 
the  Dyckman  Homestead,  once  an  important 
unit  in  the  little  sum  of  residences.  Isaac 
Martlhigs,  the  martyr,  lived,  I  believe,  in  a 
house  which  stood  to  the  south  of  the  Paulding 
place.  Boyce'  s-^2i^  on  Franklin  Street,  Gabriel 
Requa's  was  east  of  the  spring  on  Water  Street; 
that  is,  nearly  opposite  the  Paulding  house. 

The  y acob  Mott  House  or  Elizabeth  Van  Tassel 
Tavern. — More  than  sixty  years  before  the 
* '  embattled  farmers ' '  at  Concord  ' '  fired  the 
shot  heard  round  the  world,"  when  New  York 
City  was  a  village  w^ith  five  or  six  thousand 
inhabitants,  and  the  Manor  of  Filipsburg 
(Tarrytown)  a  hamlet  in  the  wilderness,  one 
Martlings  lived  in  that  house  on  the  King's 
highway.    It  was  a  solid,  sturdy  stone  struc- 


132  Cbroniclce  of  ^Tarrgtown 


ture,  designed  to  withstand  the  ravages  of  time 
and  weather  and  to  repel  the  attacks  of  savage 
neighbors.  So  well  did  the  builders  accom- 
plish their  purpose  that  it  has  outclassed  all 
contemporary  dwellings  in  the  neighborhood 
except  Flypse's  castle,"  the  residence  of  the 
I/Ord  of  the  Manor.  At  last,  at  what  date  I 
cannot  say,  it  became  a  house  of  refreshment 
for  man  and  beast,  and  during  the  period  of 
the  war  for  independence  was  known  as  the 
Elizabeth  Van  Tassel  Tavern. 

Of  course,  an  inn  that  kept  its  doors  open  at 
that  day  on  the  harassed  territory  that  lay  be- 
tween the  opposing  British  and  Continental 
armies  had  its  full  share  of  romantic  incidents. 
More  than  once  it  must  have  been  the  victim 
of  raids  by  the  cowboys  and  skinners,  and 
Mistress  Van  Tassel  w^as  no  doubt  a  discreet 
woman  to  keep  a  roof  over  her  head  at  all  in 
such  troublous  times.  If  the  old  walls  could 
retain  a  photographic  impression  of  the  worthies 
that  stopped  within  them,  what  a  gallery  it 
would  be — Washington  and  Putnam,  Light 
Horse  Harry  Lee  and  Madcap  Anthony  Wayne, 
Knyphausen,  the  raider,  and  younger  sprigs 


ant)  Slccpg  Ibollow  133 


of  the  British  nobility,  sent  over  to  win  their 
spurs.  About  the  time  of  the  battle  of  White 
Plains  an  American  or  French  officer  is  said  to 
have  lain  for  some  time  in  the  parlor  wounded, 
and  there  the  Father  of  His  Country  used  to 
bow  his  tall  figure  through  the  doorway  in  a 
daily  visit  to  him.  Once,  says  tradition,  when 
the  British  gunboats  were  anchored  out  in  the 
Tappan  Zee,  and  were  rather  careless  in  the 
disposition  of  their  ammunition,  a  cannon  ball 
found  the  tavern,  but  was  considerate  enough 
to  enter  by  the  window  instead  of  making  a 
breach  in  the  walls. 

The  tavern  was  the  American  headquarters 
when  the  Continental  forces  were  in  this  neigh- 
borhood, and  when  public  measures  were  dis- 
cussed by  General  Hammond  and  the  local 
Committee  of  Safety,  tradition  says  that  they 
made  their  rendezvous  here,  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  many  a  plan  was  hatched  and  many 
a  movement  forestalled  beneath  the  shelter  of 
its  roof  Does  any  one  suppose  that  the  dis- 
creet landlady  would  betray  her  kinsman.  Van 
Tassel,  or  the  redoubtable  Abram  Martlings 
(namesake  of  the  builder)  when  they  planned 


134  Cbronlclea  ot  tlarcBtown 


their  romantic  and  historic  raid  upon  the 
Island  of  Manhattan,  or  met  on  their  return  to 
glory  in  having  eluded  the  Hessian  guard  and 
reduced  Oliver  de  Lancey's  house  to  ashes  ? 

I  have  elsewhere  told  how  Major  Hunt  cap- 
tured a  party  there,  when  "clubs  were  trumps. ' ' 
But  better  than  any  of  the  war  stories  is  the 
delicious  romance  which  Washington  Irving 
associated  with  the  homestead  when  he  made 
it  the  scene  of  the  courtship  of  Sleepy  Hollow. 
Mr.  Irving  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  old 
house,  especially  during  the  time  that  his 
sister  boarded  there  with  the  Mott  family,  and 
it  is  due  to  his  direct  interposition  that  Mr. 
Jacob  Mott  refrained  from  making  damaging 
alterations  in  the  building  after  his  purchase 
of  it.  Even  before  he  himself  had  enriched  it 
beyond  price  he  deemed  it  worth  a  personal 
effort  to  preserve. 

One  of  the  completest  folk-stories  in  any 
language  is  that  which  Washington  Irving 
wrote  of  the  loves  and  the  floutings,  the  haps 
and  mishaps  of  Katrina  Van  Tassel,  Ichabod 
Crane,  Brom  Bones,  and  the  rest  of  the  people 
of  the  familiar  legend.  The  scene  of  the  court- 

I 


mt>  Sleeps  IboUow 


135 


ship  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  of  the  dance  aud  jeal- 
ousies, was  laid  here  in  the  old  stone  house. 
Here  Katrina,  the  belle,  set  her  admirers  by 
the  ears  with  her  coquetries;  here  the  quilting 
frolic  drew  the  lads  and  lassies  of  the  country- 
side together;  here  the  farmers,  in  pewter 
buckles  and  stupendous  brass-buttoned  coats, 
with  blue  homespun  stockings  and  eelskin 
queues,  ogled  the  damsels  in  long  waisted  short- 
gowns  ;  and  the  elect  were  regaled  with 
doughty  doughnuts  and  tender  oly  keoks,  and 
all  the  profusion  of  good  things  wherewith  the 
narrator  makes  the  mouth  of  his  reader  water. 

In  compliance  with  the  vote  of  the  citizens  of 
Tarry  town  in  1896,  the  school- trustees  bought 
the  old  Mott  house  and  tore  it  down  to  erect  a 
new  schoolhouse  on  the  site. 

T/te  Davids  Homes fead,  built  somewhere  about 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  and  still  the 
property  of  a  descendant  of  its  builder,  stands 
on  the  ridge  which  overlooks  the  village  of 
North  Tarr>^town  from  the  south  side  of  the 
Bedford  Road.  Here  Washington  made  a  halt 
and  was  entertained  after  the  battle  of  White 
Plains.    Pursuers  w^ere  then  upon  his  track, 


136  Cbroniclea  of  ^arrstown 


and,  arriving  at  the  house  soon  after  he  had  left, 
slashed  the  door-posts  with  their  sabres  in 
wanton  anger  at  having  missed  him.  The 
marks  of  the  cuts  are  still  there.  It  was  at  the 
Davids  place  that  the  party  who  were  with 
Paulding  on  the  night  preceding  the  capture 
of  Andr6,  separated  just  before  that  important 
event,  and  so  excluded  worthy  John  Dean  from 
a  share  in  the  glory  which  still  attaches  to  the 
names  of  Paulding,  Williams,  and  Van  Wart. 

The  Wm.  Landrine  House ^  that  was  bought 
of  a  family  named  Reed,  and  by  them  from  the 
people  who  occupied  it  during  the  Revolution, 
is  the  place  where  Andr6  was  taken  after  his 
capture.  It  faces  the  South  from  the  old  county- 
house  road,  and  is  on  the  north  side  of  the  reser- 
voir lake.  It  is  still  standing  and  is  owned  by 
Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller. 

Wolff ert  Ecker's. — The  house  that  Washing- 
ton Irving  has  described  in  Wolferf  s  Roost,  and 
which  he  made  his  own  home,  will  be  spoken 
of  under  its  better  known  name  of  Sunny- 
side,"  in  the  account,  given  elsewhere,  of 
Irving' s  life  in  Tarrytown. 

The  Andre  Brook  divides  the  twin  villages. 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


137 


Tarrytown  being  in  Greenburg,  and  North 
Tarrytown  in  Mount  Pleasant.  The  seat  of 
the  ancient  Manor  of  Filipsburg,  which  be- 
came the  property  of  the  Beekmans  after  the 
Revolution,  was  in  what  is  now  North  Tarry- 
town. The  estate  dwindled  to  a  mere  fraction 
of  its  former  size  till  in  December,  1822,  the 
'  *  Beekman  Farm ' '  was  advertised  for  sale, 
upon  the  death  of  Gerard  G.  Beekman,  the 
elder.  The  boundaries  given  are  mainly  those 
of  the  village  of  North  Tarrytown  as  it  is  to- 
day. The  advertisement  in  the  Westchester 
Herald  was  as  follows  : 

' '  For  Sale.  Forty-five  (probably  450)  acres 
of  very  Valuable  I,and  :  Situated  near  the 
banks  of  the  North  River,  about  twenty-eight 
miles  from  the  city  of  New  York  and  being  a 
part  of  the  farm  of  the  late  Gerard  G.  Beekman, 
Esq.  The  above  tract  of  land  lies  nearly  ad- 
joining the  village  of  Tarry-Town,  and  is 
bounded  on  the  East  by  the  Highland  Turn- 
pike Road,  on  the  West  and  North  by  the 
Public  Market  Road  leading  to  Martling  and 
Van  Wart's  landing,  and  on  the  South  by  a 
brook  called  Major  Andre's  Brook,  being  the 


138  Cbroniclcs  ot  XLm^town 


Division  I^ine  between  the ,  towns  of  Mount 
Pleasant  and  Greenburg. 

* '  This  land  has  manj-  advantages  as  a  stand 
for  Business.  The  land  itself  is  excellent  a?id 
there  are  several  pleasaiit  situations  for  building 
upon  it.  It  is,  besides  well  w^atered  and  may 
be  conveniently  laid  out  and  sold  in  Small 
Lots.  In  the  hands  of  an  enterprising  man  it 
would  soon  become  the  site  of  a  Flourishing 
Village.  Upon  the  w^hole  it  cannot  be  justly 
appreciated  without  viewing  it. 

' '  Persons  inclined  to  purchase  will  please  ap- 
ply to  Mrs.  Cornelia  Beekman,  or  Gerard  G. 
Beekman,  w^ho  reside  near  the  premises  or  to 
Frederick  Depeyster  or  Stephen  D.  Beekman 
in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  terms  w411  be 
moderate  and  accommodating  to  the  pur- 
chaser. ' ' 

The  ''Highland  Turnpike  Road,"  the 
Albany  Post  Road,"  and  ''  Broadway"  are 
the  same.  "  The  Public  highway  leading  to 
Martlings  and  Van  Wart's  Landing  "  was  the 
road,  long  since  disused,  which  was  a  con- 
tinuation of  Bedford  Road  between  Broadway 
and  the  river,  to  the  north  of  the  present  Beek- 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


139 


man  Avenue.  The  name  by  which  all  of  that 
portion  of  Tarrytown  situated  between  Van 
Courtlandt  Street,  Beekman  Avenue,  and  the 
river  was  known  until  quite  recently,  was 
Beekmantown,  and  indeed,  is  still  called  so  by 
many  old  residents.  North  Tarrytown,  the 
incorporated  village,  is  only  Beekmantown 
under  an  alias. 

Probably  few  of  the  older  inhabitants  of 
either  town  have  forgotten  a  certain  sermon, 
preached  by  a  minister  of  one  of  the  Tarrj^town 
churches,  in  which  he  asked,  ' '  Can  any  good 
thing  come  out  of  Beekmantown  ? ' '  The  witti- 
cism was  uncalled  for,  and  belonged  to  the 
same  boomerang  family  as  Doctor  Burchard's 
famous  three  R's. 

The  Albany  Post  Road  was  generally  the 
same  as  the  present  Broadway,  as  far  north  as 
the  Andre  monument,  or  that  neighborhood. 
From  near  that  point  it  swerved  more  to  the 
east  than  it  does  now  and  met  the  present  road 
again  at  the  old  church.  Exactly  what  its 
course  was  between  those  two  landmarks  has 
never  been  determined,  or  rather,  has  been  de- 
termined differently  by  every  man  who  has 


140  Cbronlclee  of  tCarcBtown 


written  on  the  subject.  It  seems  to  me  proba- 
ble that  the  eastward  trend  brought  it  some- 
where near  the  intersection  of  the  aqueduct 
and  the  Bedford  Road,  and  that  thence  it 
swept  in  a  liberal  curve  through  the  Anderson 
or  Weber  property  toward  the  old  church  and 
mill.  It  crossed  the  Pocantico  by  a  bridge 
which  was  several  rods  northeast  of  the  present 
one.  The  abutments  may  be  found  by  follow- 
ing the  stream  up  to  the  old  ford. 

Petticoat  I^ane,  the  present  White  Plains 
Road,  was  the  first  to  intersect  the  Post  Road 
south  of  the  town.  The  next  was  the  Market 
Road  that  is  now  Main  Street,  and  the  third 
the  Bedford  Road,  which  at  various  times  has 
been  known  as  the  Connecticut  and  the  old 
White  Plains  Road.  There  were  other  roads, 
built  by  farmers  for  their  convenience  in  get- 
ting to  church  or  to  market,  but  the  ones  men- 
tioned were  the  principal,  and,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Water  Street  and  Franklin,  and  a  little 
part  of  Washington,  long  the  only  streets  in 
Tarry  town. 

Carl's  Mill  afterwards  became  Hart's,  and 
the  modest  building  was  overshadowed  by 


OLD  LANE 


I 


an5  Sleeps  Dollow  141 


roomy  ice-houses.  All  are  now  in  ruins.  It 
was  of  unknown  antiquity,  the  original  Sleepy 
Hollow  Mill,  where  Mr.  Irving  loved  to  come 
to  listen  to  the  musical  flow  of  the  cool  water 
over  the  brown  old  wheel,  and  gossip  with 
Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry  over  all  the  quaint  and 
curious  lore  of  the  countryside.  The  original 
mill  at  Carl's  was  a  little  saw-mill  and  the 
Pocantico  above  and  below  it  was  the  angler's 
delight  for  many  a  year. 

The  Sleepy  Hollow  Road  ran  north  from  the 
Bedford  Road.  Its  settlement  has  not  been  in- 
cluded with  the  original  Tarrytown  nucleus 
because  they  were  not  parts  of  the  same  com- 
munity. Just  above  the  junction,  on  the  Bed- 
ford Road,  another  house  of  Revolutionary 
date  stood.    I  think  it  was  Captain  Romer's. 

The  valley  which  is  immortal  under  the 
name  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  is  several  miles  in 
length,  its  general  course  being  north  and 
south,  and  the  hills  which  border  it  broken  by 
tributary  valleys.  Its  most  extensive  branch 
is  that  through  which  the  Pocantico  Creek 
leaves  the  Sleepy  Hollow  valley  for  the  valley 
of  the  Hudson. 


142  Cbronicles  of  ^arrgtown 


In  the  year  1827  slavery  was  abolished  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  though  whether  the 
institution  would  not  have  died  a  natural 
death,  without  the  intervention  of  the  law,  is 
an  open  question.  Without  doubt  the  yoke  of 
servitude  in  New  York  State  was  a  very  mild 
one.  Public  sentiment  had  as  much  to  do  with 
the  matter  as  the  law  had,  and  public  sentiment 
refused  to  sanction  cruelty.  To  be  sure,  pun- 
ishment had  to  be  resorted  to  at  times,  but  it 
is  a  notable  fact  that  the  servant  was  not  left  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  an  offended  master  when 
he  transgressed.  The  jUvStice  and  deliberation 
of  the  people  of  this  part  of  the  country  were 
never  better  attested  than  in  the  appointment 
of  a  public  slave-whipper,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  see  that  punishment  was  fairly  administered 
to  refractory  slaves. 

The  Tarrytown  slave-whipper  (dreadful 
title  !)  was  a  mild  and  humane  Quaker  gentle- 
man named  Conklin,  who  lived  in  a  pleasant 
farm-house  which  is  yet  standing  on  a  hill- 
slope  north  of  the  lyongwood  Road,  between 
Sleepy  Hollow  and  Pocantico  Hills.  Two  very 
tall  pine  trees  tower  above  the  dwelling  and 


aiiD  Sleeps  Dollow 


143 


near  it,  to  the  east,  is  an  old  stone  mill.  Be- 
yond the  house,  northward  to  the  Sleepy  Hol- 
low Road,  extends  a  walled  road  bordered  by 
ancient  locust  trees,  and  in  a  field  only  a  few 
hundred  yards  away,  a  large  bowlder  stands 
from  which  one  may  overlook  the  valley  of  the 
Pocantico.  The  rock  is  granitic,  and  nearly 
perpendicular  on  two  sides :  its  height  is 
twelve  or  fifteen  feet,  and  its  greatest  hori- 
zontal dimensions  somewhat  more. 

The  brook  which  has  its  source  near  this  old 
house  flows  beside  the  Longwood  Road  on  its 
course  to  the  Pocantico;  and  where  the  new 
Croton  Aqueduct  crosses  its  path  it  is  spanned 
by  a  massive  and  elaborate  stone  gate.  There 
are  still  left  in  its  mimic  pools  a  few  feeble  de- 
scendants of  the  numerous  and  vigorous  trout 
that  used  to  inhabit  it.  The  Quaker  slave- 
whipper — whose  office  seems  to  have  been 
something  of  a  sinecure — lived  long  after  the 
abolition  of  his  office,  and  is  well  remembered 
by  men  now  living. 


VIII 


TARRYTOWN  IN  WAR  TIMES 

HE  call  to  arms  which  roused  the  entire 


I  country,  North  and  South,  woke  the 
people  of  Tarrytown  and  hurried  many  of  them 
to  the  front.  Some  of  those  who  went  away  at 
that  time  never  came  back  ;  their  names  are 
engraved  upon  the  soldiers'  monument  in  the 
cemetery,  others  returned  to  be  honored  by 
their  neighbors  ;  and  a  little  remnant  are  still 
with  us.  It  is  exactly  the  same  story,  word  for 
word,  which  might  be  written  of  any  village  in 
the  United  States.  The  same  burst  of  patriotic 
enthusiasm;  the  same  active  preparation;  the 
same  bravery  of  women,  who  had  the  harder 
task  of  waiting  between  hope  and  fear;  the 
same  partings  and  reunions — only  a  change  of 
names  upon  the  muster  rolls. 


Cbroniclee  of  ^Tarrgtown  145 


There  were  the  usual  animosities.  Some 
men  were  denounced  as  Copperheads  ;  and 
neighbors  and  friends  were  suddenly  estranged 
by  the  conflicting  opinions  of  the  times. 

It  has  chanced  that  these  words  are  written 
on  Decoration  Day,  1897.  In  thirty-two  years 
the  number  of  those  who  follow  the  drum  and 
carry  the  flag  to  the  graves  where  their  de- 
parted comrades  lie  in  Sleepy  Hollow  has 
dwindled  to  a  mere  handful.  They  remind  us 
that  another  generation  has  come  to  the  front, 
and  the  event  they  celebrate  is  being  crowded 
back  into  the  perspective  of  history. 

Perhaps  the  most  exciting  episode  of  the  Civil 
War  time  was  the  exodus  of  the  colored  people 
at  the  time  of  the  '63  draft  riots.  In  another 
place,  Rev.  Abel  T.  Stewart's  action  in  stopping 
the  rioters  is  referred  to.  When  the  danger 
seemed  imminent  to  citizens  of  negro  blood, 
large  parties  of  fugitives  of  that  race  abandoned 
their  houses  and  took  to  the  woods,  not  stop- 
ping till  they  had  reached  the  fastnesses  of 
Buttermilk  Hill  and  equally  secluded  strong- 
holds. The  presence  of  a  government  gunboat 
in  the  river  soon  restored  confidence  however. 


146  Cbronicles  of  (Tarr^town 


The  excitement  was  allayed  and  the  refugees 
returned  to  their  homes  after  a  few  days. 

One  of  the  immediate  effects  of  the  war  was 
an  increase  in  business  activity,  which,  for  a 
while,  Tarrj^town  shared  with  the  rest  of  the 
country.  During  that  period  the  population 
increased  somewhat,  and  a  more  extravagant 
stj'le  of  living  came  into  vogue  with  the  influx 
of  wealthy  New  Yorkers. 

The  first  body  of  men  to  volunteer  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Tarrytown  during  the  excited 
days  of  i860,  formed  Company  H,  of  the 
Thirty-second  Regiment.  After  seventeen 
years  two  dozen  of  that  company  survive. 
They  are  : 

Alfred  Lawrence,  first  lieutenant  and  acting 
captain  ;  Thomas  Rawcliffe,  James  Cropsey, 
Robert  Meeker,  John  M.  Felter,  Frank  Taxter, 
M.  V.  B.  Bassett,  Stephen  Hammond,  Sydney 
Martin,  John  Verplanck,  Durbin  See,  Robert 
Bushell,  Michael  Donohue,  Thomas  Taxter, 
William  Covert,  Oscar  McCoy,  Edward  Baker, 
Jeremiah  Flannery,  Florence  Mahoney,  John 
Perry,  Michael  Daley,  William  Evans,  John 
Kenney,  Charles  Williamson. 


anD  Sleeps  Ibollow 


147 


Seventeen  men  from  Tarrytown  went  out 
with  the  N.  Y.  Mounted  Rifles  : 

General  C.  C.  Dodge,  Major  Wm.  H. 
Schieflin,^  Captain  Edgar  A.  Hamilton,  Adju- 
tant B.  H.  Bngelke,  Lieutenant  Charles  A. 
Varick,*  Sergeant  John  H.  Briggs,  Sergeant 
Thomas  Gearhart,  Sergeant  John  Blatchley,* 
Corporal  George  L.  Wiley,*  Corporal  James 
Portous,  Corporal  James  B.  Nation,*  Abel 
Sherwood,*  William  Wallace,  M.  V.  B.  Romer, 
Peter  See,  Henry  Palmer,  F.  D.  Grittman. 

Other  Union  veterans  whose  names  occur 
are  : 

John  R.  Burd,  ist  N.  Y.  Cal.;  James  Van 
Tassel,  6th  N.  Art. ;  Edward  See,  7th  N.  Y. 
Art. ;  Abram  Boyce,  G,  7th  N.  Y.  Art. ;  Jos. 
J.  M.  Slagel,  G,  7th  N.  Y.  Art. ;  B.  F.  Davis, 
2d,  7th  N.  Y.  S.  M. ;  Patrick  H.  Bannon,  K, 
69th  N.  Y.  Vol. ;  James  Martin  ;  John  Gilleo, 
95th  N.  Y.  Vol.  ;  Michael  Conelly  ;  John 
Van  Tassell  I,  95th  N.  Y.  Vol.  John  Yocom, 
Caleb  W.  Storms,  John  Lafurgee,  William 
Rodman,  Joseph  Baker,  Jacob  Green,  John 
Mack,  William  Robinson. 

*  Deceased. 


148  Cbroniclcs  of  ^arrgtown 


Besides  these  there  were  a  number  of  citizens 
who  joined  other  organizations,  and  saw  hot 
ser\dce  on  many  Southern  battlefields.  Living 
or  dead,  we  honor  them  all,  remembering  our 
debt  to  them. 


IX 


TO-DAY 


FEW  years  ago  somebody  said — and  no 


one  has  contradicted  the  statement — 
that  the  neighborhood  between  Sleepy  Hollow 
and  Irvington  is  the  wealthiest  spot  of  ground, 
in  proportion  to  its  population,  in  the  world. 
You  cannot  throw  a  stone,  said  another,  with- 
out hitting  a  millionaire. 

No  words  can  express  more  forcibly  the 
change  which  the  hamlet  of  a  century  ago  has 
undergone.  Where  the  Dutch  settlers  hewed 
their  homes  out  of  the  forest  ;  where  the  cow- 
boys and  skinners  ranged  over  the  neutral  terri- 
tory ;  where  the  headless  horseman  found  room 
to  throw  his  pumpkin  without  hitting  any  one 
more  important  than  poor  Ichabod  ;  where 
Irving  wandered  through  sylvan  lanes  and  be- 


150  Cbronlcles  of  Carrgtown 


side  babbling  brooks  in  search  of  legends  and 
folk-lore — we  have  mansions,  gardens,  equi- 
pages, and  a  monstrous  fine  population. 

The  Tarrytown  of  to-day  is  bounded  on  the 
north  by  the  Rockefellers,  John  D.  and  Wil- 
liam, whose  magnificent  park-like  estates  are 
the  admiration  of  a  neighborhood  that  has 
grow^n  used  to  grandeur  ;  on  the  south  by  a 
cluster  of  brilliants,  among  which  the  Gould 
place  is  not  the  least.  Reference  to  the  map 
will  show  the  location  of  the  most  important  or 
prominent  of  these  country-seats,  whose  im- 
portance is  derived  both  from  their  own  beauty 
and  the  prominence  of  their  owners. 

Tarrytown  was  incorporated  in  1870.  Its 
sister  village  in  1874.  The  present  population 
of  the  two  combined  is  estimated  at  between 
6741,  as  given  by  the  eleventh  (1890)  census, 
and  7000.  Between  1880  and  1890  there  was 
an  increase  of  over  1000.  The  greater  part  of 
the  population  consists  of  comfortable  middle 
class  and  wealthy  city  people;  the  working 
class  being  a  minority.  The  only  manufactory 
of  any  importance  which  gives  employment  to 
operatives  is  the  Rand  Drill  Works,  at  the  foot 


an&  Sleepy  Ibollow 


151 


of  Beekman  Avenue,  in  North  Tarry  town. 
To  discuss  questions  of  water,  sewerage,  light- 
ing, etc.,  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  book.  It 
is  enough  to  say  that  the  second  is  adequate 
and  the  first  has  not  yet  proved  itself  to  be  in- 
adequate to  the  needs  of  the  place. 

The  streets,  which  probably  reach  thirty-five 
or  forty  miles  in  the  aggregate,  are  generally 
in  good  condition. 

The  reader  is  referred  to  the  carefully  pre- 
pared map  which  accompanies  this  work  for 
details  relating  to  the  location  of  private  resi- 
dences, points  of  (modern)  interest,  houses  of 
worship,  public  buildings,  and  streets. 


1  HUDSON  RiVER 


Dark  Tines  represent  old  roads  (iSth  Century). 
Only  the  principal  roads  and  streets  are  named  on  this  map.    The  fi] 

1.  Old  Manor  House  (  "  Flvpse's  Castle  "i 

2.  Did  Grain  Mill,  Imilt  about  168,-4. 

3.  Old  Dutch  Churcli  of  Sleepy  Hollow. 

4.  Site  ofaiicif'l  Saw  Mill. 

5.  SiteofSleep\  Hollow  School  House. 
6   David's  House,  visited  by  Washington. 


Light  Hues  represent 
es  denote  the  sites  of  interest, 
7.  The  Andr^  Captors'  Monu 


w  roads  (19th  Century). 
1  follows  : 


Dotted  lines  represent  private  roads. 


Site  of  Old  Mott  House  (Katrina  Van  Tassel's). 

occupied  by  New  High  School. 
Site  of  Couenhoven  House,  afterwards  Martin  i 
Tavern.   Now  occupied  by  the  Jones  Building. 
"  Tommy  "  Dean's  Store  and  other  old  houses. 


11.  Westchester  Count v  S.ivings  Bank. 

12.  Merrick's  Castle.    Now  u.sed  as  a  School. 

13.  Christ  Church,  of  which  Mr.  Irving  was  a  Warden. 

14.  Old  Martling  House. 

15.  Site  of  Paulding  and  Martling  Houses. 
16-17.  Kevolutionarv  Kedoubls. 


INDEX 


A 

Acherly,  Lieutenant,  93 

Action  at  Tarry  town,  the,  90 

Advertisement  of  sale  of  the  Beekman  farm,  137 

Albany  Postroad,  139 

Albany  Turnpike,  88 

Alipconc,  5 

Allen,  Rev.  John  Knox,  117 
Anderson  property,  136 

Andre,  Major  John,  84-86;  Adjutant  General,  87;  his 
ride,  93  ;  capture  of,  93  ;  taken  to  Reed  house 
after  his  capture,  136  ;  brook,  the,  136 ;  monu- 
ment, 139 

Andre's,  horse,  94  ;  tree,  103,  104 

Andros,  Governor,  8 

Archer,  John,  87 

Arnold,  Benedict,  84  ;  his  name  execrated,  104 
Arnold's  treachery,  86 

B 

Bartholf,  Rev.  Guilliaume,  47 
Battle  of  White  Plains,  133 

Bayard,  Colonel,  14  ;  account  of  grievances,  16  ;  col- 
league of  Flypse,  23  ;  his  name  coupled  with 
Captain  Kidd,  25 

Bayles,  Nathaniel,  127 


153 


154 


Bedford  road,  the,  88,  135,  138,  140,  141 
Beekman,  additious  to  manor  house,  34 ;  farm  adver- 
tised, 137  ;  Avenue,  138,  151 

 Gerard  G.,  31,  137,  138 

 Mrs.  Cornelia,  32,  73,  138 

 Stephen  D.,  138 

Beekmans,  the,  137,  138 

Beekmantown,  139 

Bell  of  old  church,  45 

Bolton,  his  account  not  reliable,  128 

Border  raids,  80 

Boundaries  of  the  Beekman  farm,  137 

British,  occupy  heights,  82  ;  frigates  in  the  Hudson,  90 

Brombacher's  burned  factory,  115 

Brom  Bones,  117,  134 

Brush,  Rev.  William,  59 

Bryant,  Amada,  60 

Buckhout,  Polly,  82 

Business  increase  after  the  war,  146 

Butler,  Col.  Richard,  82 

Buttermilk  Hill,  85,  145 

C 

Captors  of  Andr^,  104 

Carl  brook,  60 

Carl's  Mill,  140 

Charter  Oak,  the,  122 

Charter  of  liberties,  15 

Chestnut  tree  in  40-acre  lot,  30 

Church,  Christ,  69 

 1st  Reformed,  47,  57 

 North,  division  of  property  with  the  South 

Church,  59 

  Old  Dutch,  39,  46,  60,  66 ;  furniture  of,  8 ; 

bell  of,  9  ;  structure  of,  40 ;  interior,  41  ;  gallery, 
42  ;  closed,  65  ;  Washington  rested  at,  73 

 South,  57  ;  preaching  in,  58  ;  division  of  prop- 
erty, 59 

Civil  war  riots,  the,  62  ;  episodes,  145 
Cliff  House,  129 
Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  78 


155 


Cold  Spring  bridge,  88 

Comb,  George,  built  the  Dean  house,  130 

Comb's,  George,  house,  127 

Committee  of  Safety,  75 

Confiscation  of  estate,  73 

Conklin,  the  Quaker,  142 

Constant,  Judge,  bought  communion  table,  47 

Constitutional  Convention,  129 

Continental  army  passing  manor-house,  narrative  of 

Mrs.  Beekman,  33 
Cornbury,  Governor  of  New  York,  29 
Costumes  of  old  times,  43 
Courtlandt,  48 

Courtship  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  134,  135 
Couenhoven  house,  84,  127 
Couenhoven's  William,  house,  130 
Cowboys,  132 
Crane,  Ichabod,  134 

Croton,  7,  72  ;  guides,  78;  aqueduct,  the,  143 
Cufify  Flypse,  105 

D 

Davids  homestead,  85,  135 
Dean,  John,  84,  136 

 Thomas,  house,  127,  130 

de  Deux  Fonts,  his  account  of  review,  etc.,  90,  92 

de  Lancy,  Oliver,  80,  134 

de  Peyster,  Frederick,  138 

de  Revere,  Abraham,  4,  7,  8,  28,  47 

Dervall,  John,  22 

Destruction  of  sloops  by  the  British,  91 

de  Vries,  6  ;  Margareta,  6 

Dobbs  Ferry,  54 

Dominie,  the,  51 

Draft  riots,  the,  62 

Du  Bois,  George,  57  ;  his  salary,  58 

Dun  op's  Yagers,  81 

Dutch,  Reformed  Church,  14  ;  conservatism,  50;  lan- 
guage superseded  by  English,  52 
Dutchmen  great  church-goers,  46 
Dykeman's  house,  127,  131 


156 


E 

Ecker,  Wolfert,  44,  66,  67  ;  a  well-known  character, 

44  ;  his  house  known  as  Wolfert's  Roost,  136 
English,  first  baptismal  service  in,  52 

F 


Feet-washing  in  Pocantico,  51 
Ferris,  Benson,  66,  67 

 Mrs.  Oliver,  67 

 Oliver,  66 

 Rev.  John  Mason,  58 

Fire  !"   Anecdote  of  Rev.  Mr.  Smith,  55 
Flypse,  Adolphus,  succeeds  to  estate,  25,  26 ;  unmar- 
ried, 28 

 Eva,  9,  31  ;  married  to  Van  Courtlandt,  29 

 Frederic,  6 

 Lady  Catharina,  22,  27-29 

 Lady,  Margarita,  27 

 Vredryk,  5,  9,  13,  114;  Hon.  Vredryk,  7;  his 

castle,  10,  13,  25,  37,  39,  132  ;  his  journeys  to  Tar- 
rytown,  10;  the  master,  11;  traditionary,  14;  as 
alderman,  15,  18;  signature  to  certificate,  17; 
steals  a  march  on  Leisler,  17  ;  thoroughness  of 
his  work,  19  ;  death  of  his  wife,  22  ;  first  Ameri- 
can chosen  by  popular  vote  to  represent  New 
York,  23  ;  richest  man  in  the  colony,  23 ;  as  a 
merchant,  24 ;  his  name  coupled  with  that  of 
Kidd,  25  ;  buried  under  old  church,  29  ;  died  in 
1702,  29;  estate  and  tenants,  30;  not  a  Patroon, 
31  ;  iDuilds  a  dam,  105 

Flying  Dutchman,  the,  106,  108 

Fogal's,  Abraham,  house,  127 

Foote,  Mr.  occupied  the  old  manor  house,  33 

Fordham,  48,  53 

Fort  Orange,  120 

Fremont,  General,  69 

French,  Annetje,  29 

 army  move  from  North  Castle,  89 

 Philip,  29 


157 


G 

Gould  mansion,  128,  150 

 Miss  Helen,  128 

Greeuburg,  53 

Grinnell,  Hon.  Moses  H.,  70 

H 

Hackensack,  3 
Hafenje,  the,  76 
Half  Moon,  the,  106 

Hammond,  or  Hammon,  Gen.  James,  52,  74 ;  and  the 

Committee  of  Safety,  133 
Harlem,  48,  53 
Hawes,  James,  85 

 Lovine,  51 

 Mrs.  James,  36 

 Solomon,  51,  52 

Headless  Hessian,  114,  115 
Heath,  General,  Memoirs ^  77 
Highland  turnpike,  138 
Hoe,  Robert,  78 
Hollanders,  3 
Hopkins,  Major,  78 
Houses  of  settlers,  3 
Hudson,  Hendrick,  106 
Hulda,  the  witch,  97,  108,  iii 
Hunt,  Major,  87,  88 
Hunt's  escape,  89 

Hurlburt,  Captain  of  2d  Light  Dragoons,  91  ;  men- 
tioned in  General  Orders  by  Washington  for  his 
bravery  at  Tarrytown,  92 

I 

Indians,  domesticated,  13 

Irving,  Washington,  67,  134 ;  social  life,  68,  69 ;  Life 
of  Washington,  75 

J 

Jackson,  Rev.  John  F.,  53 
Jacob  the  Roman,  117 


158 


JafFray,  Edward  S.,  70 
Jay,  John,  the  elder,  5 
Jones,  Capt.  Oscar,  63 
Jones,  Eugene,  85 

K 

Kakeout,  Kaakiat,  or  Kykuit,  76,  118 

Kidd,  William,  commissioned  to  chase  pirates,  24 

Kidd's,  perversion,  25  ;  rock,  25,  104 

Kill  of  Kitch  Awong,  7 

Kingsbridge,  77 

King's  Highway,  no 

Kingsland,  Ambrose,  33,  87 

Kingsland's  round  tower,  107 

Knyphausen,  the  raider,  132 

Kykuit  voyager,  the,  123 

I. 

Lady  Margarita,  22 
Laudrine  house,  136 

 William,  57 

 William  B.,  87 

Lee,  Lighthorse  Harry,  132 
Leisler,  Jacob,  14-17 
Leislerian  faction,  14 
Leni  Lenapes,  98 
Leonard's,  John,  house,  127 
Lincoln,  General,  77 

Livingstone,  Colonel,  gets  Kidd  a  commisssion,  24 
Longwood  road,  142,  143 
Lord  Flypse,  4,  7 
Lord  of  the  manor,  3 

M 

Main  Street,  140 

Manor-house,  the,  building,  11,  12 
Manor  of  Philipsburg,  137 
Market  road,  Main  Street,  140 
Martlings,  Abram,  133 

 and  Van  Wart's  landing,  138 

 Captain  Daniel,  83,  126,  129 


•ffnDea: 


159 


Martling's  house,  129 

 Isaac,  house,  131 

 Sergeant  Isaac,  83 

 the  impetuous,  80 

 the  Martyr,  82,  83 

Massacre  of  Sleepy  Hollow,  82 

Memorial  of  thanks  by  the  tenants  of  Philipsburg,  26 
Mill,  construction,  19,  20  ;  shingles  of,  19  ;  pond,  dam, 

20 ;  said  to  be  a  port  of  entry,  20 
Monroe,  Mrs.,  69 
Morgan,  Geo.  D.,  69 
Mott  homestead,  127 

 Jacob,  134 

Mott's,  Jacob,  house,  131 
Mounted  Rifles,  147 
Munson's  tavern,  126 
Mutzelius,  Domine,  43,  48 

N 

Napoleon,  Louis,  70 

Negro  exodus,  145 

Neperhan,  the,  8i 

Neutral  ground,  its  hardships,  109 

New  Amsterdam,  5 

North  Tarrytown,  137 

Norton's,  Colonel,  attack  on  Young's  house,  81 
Notable  visitors  at  the  Van  Tassel  tavern,  132 

O 

Onderdonk  house,  129 
 Jacob,  126 

P 

Papist,  Flypse  charged  with  being  a,  14 

Parsons,  General,  79 

Patriotism  of  youth,  74 

Paulding,  General  William,  127,  128 

 James  Kirke,  47 

 John,  85,  86  ;  at  Davids'  place,  136 

 Philip  R.,  129 

Paulding's  house,  126,  128 


i6o 


Peekskill,  77 
Petticoat  Lane,  81,  140 

Philips,  Frederick,  great-grandson  of  Vredryk  Flypse, 
26  ;  on  tablet,  45 

 Miss,  courted  by  George  Washington,  31 

 Philip,  Judge  of  Supreme  Court,  25  ;  married 

a  lady  of  Barbadoes,  25 

 Sir  Frederick,  31  ;  collected  his  rents,  36 

Philipsburg,  manor  of,  6,  7,  18,  22,  25  ;  confiscated, 
31  ;  pulpit,  54 

Pocantico,  the,  30,  51,  loi,  141  ;  manor-house,  mill, 
and  church  built  on,  8  ;  purchase,  8  ;  trout  fish- 
ing, 60  ;  Gazette,  126  ;  bridge,  140  ;  Hills,  142 

Point  no  Point,  106 

Population  of  villages,  150 

Post  Reiter,  der,  120 

Public  money,  14 

Putnam,  General  Israel,  76,  132 

R 

Raven  Rock,  ITI-113 
Raymond,  M.  D.,  authority,  83 
Redemptioners,  119 

Reed  house,  afterrs-ards  Landrine's,  127,  136 
Reform  in  church  service,  50 
Report  to  the  crown,  1691,  21 
Requa's,  Gabriel,  house,  131 
 Jacob,  house,  126 

Riggs  brings  letters  of  instruction  to  L/cisler,  16,  17 
Riots,  '63,  62 

Ritzemer,  Rev.  Johannes,  43,  48 
Rockefeller,  John  D.,  87,  136 
Rockefellers,' John  D.  and  William,  150 
Romer's,  Captain,  house,  79,  141 
Royal  grant  to  Flypse,  5 

S 

Saint,  Nicholas  4 
Savings  bank,  the,  66,  67 
Sawmill  River,  the,  71 
Scales  for  weighing  gold,  36 


i6i 


Scharf 's  History  of  Westchester  Countyy  78 
Schenck,  Rev.  John  W.,  58 
See,  James  S.,  36 

 Mrs.  Eliza  Ann,  117 

See's  store,  88 
Segere,  Anthony,  120 

Sheldon,  Colonel  of  regiment  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  91 
Skinners,  132 
Slapering  Hafen,  76 

Sloughter,  Sir  Henry,  17  ;  arrival  in  New  York,  18 
Slave-whipper,  the,  142 
Slavery  abolished,  142 

Sleepy  Hollow,  68,  71,  142  ;  mill,  141  ;  road,  141,  143 
Smith,  Rev.,  his  energy  in  establishing  churches,  54; 
his  burial  place,  57 

 Mrs.,  a  modem  Xantippe,  56 

Smith's,  Martin,  tavern,  84,  127 

Smoke-house,  13 

Snifl&n  house,  131 

Spook  Rock,  the,  96,  98,  102,  108 

Spuyten  Duyvel,  7 

Stewart,  Rev.  Abel  T.,  59,  60-62,  65,  145  ;  meets  riot- 
ers, 63  ;  calls  rioters  friends,  64 
Storm,  Captain  Jacob,  33 
Streets,  extent  of,  151 
Sugar  House,  79 

Sunnyside,  136  ;  glen,  67 ;  rebuilt  by  Irving,  68  ;  ivy, 
70 

Survivors  of  Company  H,  32d  Regiment,  146 
T 

Tappan,  102  ;  Zee,  106  ;  British  fire-ships  in,  76 
Tarrytown,  purchase,  8  ;  in  Greenburg,  137 ;  incor- 
porated, 150 
Tenantry  of  estate,  4 
Thirty-Second  Regiment,  146 
Thrones,  49 

Todd,  Rev.  John  A . ,  his  account  of  British  landing  at 

Tarrytown,  78 
Trading  boat,  2 

Tr^nagh,  Judah,  118  ;  her  ride,  121 
Tryon,  Governor,  his  cruelty,  79 


l62 


■ffnOei 


u 

Underbill,  Nathaniel,  82,  83 
Union  veterans,  147 

V 

Valley  of  the  Hudson,  141 
Van  Courtlandt,  9,  14,  72 
 Catherine,  22 

 Cornelia,  granddaughter  of  Cornelius,  32 

 Cornelius,  31  ;  signature  to  a  certificate,  17  ; 

marries  Eva  Flypse,  29 

 Katriua,  on  tablet,  45 

 Olaff,  22  ;  colleague  of  Flypse,  24 

 Pierre,  75 

 Stephanus,  16,  22 

Van  Dam,  Rambout,  123 
Van  Houghten,  48 
Van  Tassel  house,  127 

 Jacob,  and  his  "goose  gun,"  66 

 Katrina,  135 

 Peter  and  Cornelius,  their  houses  burned  by 

the  British,  79 
Van  Tassel's,  Elizabeth,  tavern,  80,  87,  131 
Van  Voorhees,  Rev.  Stephen,  49,  50,  53 ;  baptizes  Lo- 

vine  Hawes  in  English,  52 
Van  Wart,  Isaac,  85 

W 

War  for  Independence,  71 

War-ships  on  the  Hudson,  75,  76 

Washington,  General,  77,  132  ;  Life  of,  70 ;  mentions 

old  church,  73  ;  reviews  the  allies,  89  ;  diary  for 

1781,  92 
Water  Street,  83 

Wayne,  Anthony,  "Madcap,"  132 
Wealth  of  Tarrytown,  149 
Webb,  General  James  Watson,  69 
Weber  property,  140 
Westchester  County,  7 
Whale-boats,  patrol,  72 


163 


Wharf,  the,  10 

White  Plains,  convention,  76 ;  road,  81,   140 ;  old 

road,  87  ;  battle  of,  135 
William  and  Mary,  8 
Williams,  David,  85 
Wilson,  Rev.  Joseph,  58 
Wolfert's  Roost,  44,  66 
Woman  of  the  Cliff,  the,  113 

Y 

Yerks,  Van  Wart,  and  Strong  captured,  92 

Yonkers  manor-house,  9 
Yorktown,  51 
Youugs  house,  81 


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